Waste and garbage remain a key nuisance, not only in the hinterlands of Chennai but also in the upmarket areas of the city. A 1.5 hour long clean up drive was held on Sunday on a 500 metre-stretch of Elliots Beach in Besant Nagar and more than 15 sacks of trash was collected by the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M).
The Sustainability Network (S-Net) which is a newly formed student organisation in IIT-M focussing on making the campus eco-friendly, organized this beach clean-up drive in collaboration with Zero Waste Initiatives of the Greater Chennai Corporation. More than 200 students participated in the drive with the collective aim of increasing awareness on the usage of non-recyclable waste and keeping the environment clean.
“We segregated the waste into three categories - plastic, glass, and leather plus clothing items. Most of the garbage we picked consisted of plastic bags, plastic wrappers. There were a lot of glass pieces as well,” said K Shivani, a fourth-year B.Tech student, who participated in the drive, “We have always read about waste and garbage issues. It is easy to read about it. But this is the first time that we had a hands-on experience. This has made us all more sensitive towards the issue.”
Washed aways slippers, glass bottles, plastic bags, plastic wrappers, were the items found in abundance along the coastline. The Chennai Trekking Club and the Greater Chennai Corporation supplied safety equipment like gloves and masks for those who participated. More than 15 bags of non-biodegradable waste was picked up from the coast in over 1.5 hours, which was handed over to the team of Greater Chennai Corporation.
It was during the cleaning process when the students realized the amount of garbage accumulated in one year on the coast. So, the S-Net has decided to extend its efforts and to encourage students to reduce, reuse, and recycle the waste generated from the campus.
