“PLASTIC MARANAKKIDANGU”

( PLASTIC – THE DEATH TRAP )

Crusade to halt the invasion of plastics

in villages surrounding

Sevalaya

1st week of September 2010

Initiating students to Design for Change

Programme

Teachers explain the concept of the programme, clarify the doubts of the students and show sample projects done by students in the earlier years.

2nd week of September 2010

Students come up with ideas

Students talk about the problems in their villages. Various ideas are written down and discussed. A common link is seen in the listed problems. Students decide to take up work on the common enemy –PLASTIC.

3rd week of September 2010

Assessing the situation

Student groups formed and they go to the different villages to get an idea of the ground situation.

3rd week of September 2010

Working out strategies and plans

Groups work out strategies to spread awareness about the evils of plastic. They meet village heads and get their cooperation.

They make arrangements with a person who is in the recycling business to collect the waste material once in 3 months.

They go from door to door and talk with people. Pamphlets are distributed and CDs shown highlighting the evils of plastic.

4th week of September 2010

Getting in to the field

Students clear the existing garbage dumps and sort out non bio degradable items. They start collecting plastics and papers from houses and motivate villagers to avoid use of plastics as far as possible. They also tell villagers to compost the degradable waste.

28th September 2010

The D Day

Street plays , Rallies, Public announcements are made to reinforce the message and ensure that the villagers cooperation will continue in the days to come.

Students take the help of volunteers to completely clean out existing non degradable waste.

Mr.Ramesh Rao from Chennai comes in to take away the sorted plastic waste.

28th September 2010 Evening

The Change

At the end of the day the 7 villages (Kasuva, Ramanathapuram, Puliyur, Pakkam, Melakkondaiyar, Sivanvoyal, Kaliyanur Kandigai) looked clean and neat. The entire appearance of the villages had changed.