The students of Nirmala College for Women in the city have shown the way in eradication of plastic carry bags.
The students of the Department of Geography started making one paper bag from newspapers every day, from December 2009. The exercise went on quietly and on July 27, 2018, the students had manufactured one lakh paper bags.
The bags were first given to the college canteen, thereby eliminating plastic carry bags on the campus. Then it was given free of cost to vans that sell packed lunches in and around Red Fields and to a khadi outlet. The journey began with Ms. Vijayalakshmi Bhaskara Rao, Assistant Professor of Biotechnology, KSG College, demonstrating on making cloth bags during a seminar at the college.
Now the staff supply the newspaper and check the quality of the bag.
These eco-friendly paper bags came in for appreciation from a few magazines and also won an award from the Nature Conservation Society in 2016. The bags are made of simple moulds, folds and paste. The initiative has been sustained over the years and the journey continues due to the efforts of Ms. Prema, Retired Associate Professor of Geography and former Head of the Department, and Ms. Maria, Retired Associate Professor, who started the drive initially. Whenever students run short of paper, help comes from Ms. Uma, Ms. Rekha Pai, and Ms.Folentia Kamal - the teaching faculty.