Former prof shows how to make wealth from waste
Mumbai: Environment is last on our list of priorities and our prime need. I want to bridge this gap.
This is what Francin Pinto believes. So the former University of Mumbai zoology lecturer started an organisation called Garbage Concern three years ago to educate college and school students, corporates, housing societies and communities about the importance of preserving the environment. The idea is to facilitate environmental conservation, sustainable development, organic city farming and social forestry, Pinto says.
Garbage Concern has employed around 29 school dropouts, aged 16 to 30, who work full-time. Pinto has also taken up the responsibility of maintaining several gardens in the city. We have worked with 15,000 college children and 32,000 schoolchildren in addition to corporates and children from slums, Pinto says. Her organisation has also worked with institutions to teach them about management of canteen waste. Kitchen waste is misplaced wealth, she feels.
After one of her lectures at the K Raheja College of Architecture and Environment Studies, Juhu, the college adopted the zero-waste concept in 2005, where 90 per cent of the waste generated was reused and recycled.
The participation of students and teachers was established via an LCD presentation on waste to wealth and field visits to the Gorai dumping ground and zero-garbage zones. The college implemented the two-bin system, so segregation of waste became a way of life for the students. They have also constructed a vermicomposting unit to convert biodegradable waste into valuable manure, Pinto says. The organisation has worked with various other schools in the western suburbs.