Tue. Mar 19th, 2024
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The Plastic Free Initiative has been taken by thousands of students from 80 Top B-Schools that included Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon, have decided to keep the campus and the surroundings of the campus plastic-free.

The students have decided to approach stakeholders for their new project, for managing plastic wastes, preparing case studies on plastic pollution, creating awareness in campuses, for persuading corporate offices and housing societies on plastic management. The Gurgaon campus has prepared white papers on plastic pollution and suggested to eradicate it.

They have also decided to run citizen awareness campaigns, identify volunteers for effective disposal of plastic bottles, and to join local rag pickers to ensure segregation of wastes and plastics.

“Gurugram, being a major spot for corporates, companies and rapid urbanization, becomes a natural choice for a focused pilot project. The fast lifestyle in the city leads to lots of packaged food and beverage intake and hence there is greater scope for ‘Where Is My PET Going’ project,” according to Ranjoy Dey, chief executive of Volunteer4India, a social enterprise working with B-Schools such as IIM-A, IIM-B, Birla Institute of Management and Technology in Greater Noida and International Management Institute (IMI) in New Delhi.

“The initial target for Gurugram is to conduct the study in at least 25-30 condominiums, 10 corporates, and 5 shopping malls. The pilot activity will run for 45 days in Gurgaon. This will be followed by a major conference to enable suitable coordination among people representatives, bureaucrats, corporates, NGOs and the civil societies to instigate necessary policy reforms,” Dey added.

“There are strict guidelines within our campus pertaining to the management of plastic waste. We are meeting key people associated with PET bottle waste management in the city. A white paper will be submitted to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram to include them in the fight against plastic waste,” said S Narang, a student from MDI.

“What was merely a case study initially left on us such a strong connection for the cause. As a team, research on various aspects of the case exposed us to the reality of the mounting plastic waste and need for awareness and action by all the three stakeholders in the economy — businesses, governments, and social groups,” said  Gaurav Singh, a student of IIM-B.

“During our interaction with various waste recycling firms, we understood that this challenge also came with an entrepreneurial opportunity,” added Swati Agarwal another IIM student.

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