Mumbai teens use summer holidays to spread awareness on hazards of plastic waste

Around 27 teenagers from Ghatkopar, who recently cleared their Class 10 exams, are using their summer holidays to spread the message of eco-friendly living and hazards of plastic waste. 

In addition, they are distributing cloth bags to local vendors and residents in the area for the past two weeks. On World Environment Day, they visited 15 housing societies and shops to collect plastic.

“As the deadline for disposing of plastic waste is around the corner, our aim is spread awareness among locals through social media and by visiting their homes. We realised that several people had already got rid of plastic and quite a few vendors also willing to switch over from plastic to eco-friendly bags,” said Niva Shah, a ninth grade student of Garodia International Centre For Learning, who is part of the initiative.

Save the Earth Movement (STEM), as the group calls itself, collected two drums and seven large bags of plastic on Tuesday. Apart from collecting plastic, the group has sold and distributed more than 1,000 cloth bags in the past two weeks.

“We conducted a survey before implementing the plan. Now, our next step is to revisit the two markets, Odeon and Pant Nagar, where we distributed cloth bags to spread awareness about the ill-effects of using plastic and ensure that we can make our area plastic-free,” said Dirgh Shah, 15.

Another volunteer, Krish Doshi added the group has enroled for the global initiative by United Nations (UNc) alled #BeatPlasticPollution and were uploading videos and pictures of their work on social media.

“My mother [Bhavita], after looking at the waste generated in the locality, suggested we take up the cause this vacation instead of just wasting our time. So we took up the cause and intend to keep working towards it,” said Varun Parikh.