My main job was to go to colleges and schools to help change their habit of burning waste and indiscriminately disposing it. My primary job was to explain students and staff how to segregate the recyclable waste and compost the organic waste. The goal was to become a Zero Waste Campus. This means that 80% of the waste must be recycled and often more than 60% of the waste is organic which can easily be composted.
In the beginning I thought it would be easy, but I was wrong. We faced some difficulties that we didn’t foresee. We had inorganic waste in the compost pits, burning waste on the campus and dustbins misused. One needs to be patient and understanding as they are not used to such organized systems. But we also had some very successful moments. We had lots of volunteers coming to help us out to place the bins, we ran two clean up campaigns with over more than 300 students participating in it and banners being put up to show the importance of recycling. The look of the campus just changes in 1 day from dirty looking campus to a clean and pleasing campus.
It was a unique experience to be able to get a glimpse of the Indian schooling system and being able to talk to students, teachers and to the principal. It’s hard to get work done on time because you always get invited to drink tea and chat a bit.
