Youngsters establish Garbage Bank for Waste Management in Virudhunagar
Jun 13, 2022
Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu) [India], June 13 : A group of youngsters in Virudhunagar District have established a 'Garbage Bank', primarily focused on educating people about waste segregation, upcycling and recycling with the slogan "No More Dumpyards".
According to reports within a span of 2 years, they have recycled 43,000 kg worth of waste. They have held over 130 awareness and educational sessions on waste management for students, teachers, homemakers and the general public.
Over 500 families in Virudhunagar have made waste segregation a regular practice. Till today, 43,367 kg of waste has been collected and recycled.
The group is a record holder and has registered their names in the Guinness Book of world records, twice. Firstly they were registered for having the largest lesson on recycling with 17,303 students from school and college. And secondly, for recycling the highest number of plastic bags within eight hours, soaring 2,37,900.
From segregation, upcycling and recycling to everything that is garbage-related, the unique system of this bank can address any issue at any scale.
Revathi Rajasekaran, professor of V V Vanniaperumal College, says "My department went on to install three different bins in each class for biowaste, plastic and paper. Eventually, when the whole college followed the method, there was a huge amount of garbage, which they couldn't dispose off. But that's when we reached out to Garbage Bank, to fix this. Thus, plastic waste was recycled."
The garbage bank pays 6 rupees per kilo for the garbage they receive from people, reinforcing people's interest to manage their waste.
"I gave garbage to the Garbage Bank, and they bought it. They paid one rupee per six kilos of garbage instead. I can earn 300 rupees a month from this garbage. This is an amazing process. This allows waste to be recycled without harming the environment," says Priya, a civilian.
