Happy Earth Day; now ban plastic bags at your home…..Nitya Kaushik
As the 39th anniversary of Earth Day dawns upon us, thousands of students, and government and private company employees in Mumbai will distribute nearly a lakh paper bags to their neighbourhood grocers and shopkeepers today.
Over 1,25,000 such bags, made by thousands of citizens across India, Oman, Singapore and Qatar, in an Earth Day workshop organised by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) on Tuesday, will make their way to shops and stores today.
Neha G, research associate at Social Transformation Environmental Education and Awareness Division of Teri in Delhi said, This year for Earth Day, we organised a nationwide paper bag making campaign . Our target was to make 100,000 paper bags on Tuesday. However, we have exceeded our target and made as many as 25,000 bags more. Neha said their aim was to popularise paper bags. Students learnt to mould old newspapers, scraps and magazine pages into attractive bags of all shapes and sizes, she said.
In Mumbai, students from 35 schools, including world schools like Ryan International, DAV school, Amity Group, several government schools and Army public schools, and employees of many private offices joined the campaign. People from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Nagaland and Pondicherry also participated in the campaign.
Several organisations across Mumbai are celebrating Earth Day by organising cleanliness drives, sapling distributions and awareness programmes. Members of Powai-based Young Environmentalists Programme Trust took a pledge on the eve of Earth Day, promising to try their best to switch over to reusable cloth bags, save water, walk instead of using vehicles, protect and plant trees and aim for zero garbage in their homes. They also took pledge to try to influence their friends and family to help protect the earth.
Over 450 students participated in a sewerage water recycling workshop at the Nirvana Nature Park at Hiranandani Garden Powai.
Several 5-star hotels also will make their statement on Earth Day. The Orchid Ecotel, as part of its awareness drive Heal the earth and heal ourselves will distribute free saplings to visitors at the Oberoi Mall, Goregaon today. JW Marriot, Juhu and Renaissance Group will celebrate the entire month as environment month to spread awareness about issues like global warming, importance of tree plantation and recycling of waste.
Also, conservation NGO BNHS has decided to organise a clean-up drive at Goregaon.