The members of the Robotronics Club, Ahmedabad, are among those children. The team of ten 12-year-old boys studying in different schools has taken up the mission of improving dry waste management in the city.
Started in 2015 with the objective of encouraging students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, the Robotronics Club conducts weekly activities for its young members. At the beginning of this year, 10students from the club decided to participate in a US-based competition called “Trash Trek.” The competition’s theme for the year was based on recycling, and students had to come up with innovative ideas for recycling and waste management relevant to their native place.
The team’s research brought to light some crucial points: They found that of the 4,800 metric tonnes of dry waste created in Ahmedabad, only 20% was recycled, and the residents’ habit of not segregating wet and dry waste was one of the biggest reasons behind this.
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“As they studied more, they became restless and expressed the wish todo something about it. We all sat together and they came up with the plan of action, which included things ranging from actually collecting waste & giving it for recycling to preparing songs and skits for awareness creation,” says Monal Shah. Monal is a creative fashion consultant, who founded the club seeing the lack of STEM activities in schools.The team consisting of 10 students: Aaman Shah, Aarav Savla, Vir Gandhi, Param Adani, Armaan Somani, Ridansh Agarwal, Shaurya Goenka, Maanit Shah, Aahan Mehta and Ishan Patel decided to name their initiative “Think and Throw.”
The initiative began in the students’ residential societies. They convinced their parents and neighbours to segregate waste.
They visited the recycling company Let’s Recycle and teamed up with it to recycle the waste they had collected. Soon the response grew and they decided to extend the initiative to a school.
With the encouragement from the team, over 800 students of Anand Niketan Satellite School became a part of Think and Throw and started segregating waste in their school as well as homes. The club’s members would collect the dry waste themselves and give it for recycling. Within 20 days of starting the initiative, they had managed to collect and recycle over 1 tonne of dry waste.
“The idea is to not treat trash as a trash, but as treasure. If we think even for a second before throwing waste, that small gesture can make our planet clean and green. Our small initiative is an example of what could happen if we throw wisely, how much carbon emission could be avoided. We even collected Rs 20,000 rupees from the waste recycling and gave it for the skill development of children with special needs,” says the team.Aside from the waste-management initiatives in residential societies and schools, the club members also organise drives to create awareness. They have written a street play highlighting the importance of waste segregation and the plight of rag pickers, who suffer gravely because of the presence of hazardous material in the trash. The students perform the play along with some songs that they have composed at different locations to catch people’s attention.
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To know more about The Robotronics Club Ahmedabad, visit its Facebook page here.