Andhra Pradesh: GVMC enters Wonder Book of Records for pledge against single-use plastic
Dec 21, 2022
Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), December 21 : Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has found a place in the 'Wonder Book of Records' for organizing a mega campaign to oppose the use of single-use plastic items in the city.
GVMC commissioner P Raja Babu received the Wonder Book of Records on behalf of the GVMC for its campaign named 'Big Promise' which involved over 2 lakh school students of the city. The students were asked to educate their parents about using alternate environment-friendly materials and shunning the use of single-use plastic items.
In the entire state of Andhra Pradesh, single-use plastic will be banned from 26 January, he added.
"Prior to entering the Wonder Book of Records, more than two lakh students of public and private schools within the limits of GVMC had taken a pledge that they will insist on their parents against using or bringing home the banned plastic in the name of "Big Promise" program," GVMC Commissioner said.
He said that the municipal corporation is putting in a lot of effort in eliminating the prohibited plastic from the city, a task that the state government has also launched ambitiously. 
"As part of the program, we organised this program with Ranger force NGO organization. First of its kind of program held in the country, where parents promised to their children," he said.
GVMC Additional Commissioner Sanyasi Rao said that as many as 531 schools in the city participated in the awareness campaign. "We convened a series of meetings with schools, children and plastic manufacturers." He added that they plan to enforce a complete ban on single-use plastic items from January 26, 2023.
Ninth standard student Yashitha said that plastic causes damage to the environment, ocean and normal animals eat huge quantities of plastic, which the recently WHO announced. "We told our parents to not use plastic to protect the environment," she said. 
Another student named Jessi said that plastic is very hazardous to the environment. "We aren't only giving this message to society but to our parents. We are using different colours of bins to segregate wet, dry and electronic waste. We made promises to our parents to not use single-use plastic and signed on 'Big Promise' paper," said Jessi.
