Shillong, May 26: The Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong in collaboration with the Office of the State Coordinator, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), Meghalaya , Urban Affairs Department, Government Of Meghalaya, O/o the CEO, Shillong Municipal Board, Shillong organised a “Himalayan Clean-up” activity as part of a campaign launched by the Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) and Zero Waste Himalayas to create awareness on the ill-effects of plastic on the environment.
The ultimate objective is to move towards a Zero plastic World in the 12 mountain states of the country including north-eastern states and adopt the traditional of mode of packaging of food material and reduce our dependence on plastics.
Department of Environment and Traditional Ecosystems (DETE), Department of Tourism and Travel Management (DTTM) and Department of Social Work (DSW) of the Martin Luther Christian University, and volunteers from NEEDS, Shillong launched the “Himalayan Clean-up” today at Police Bazar in Shillong which was inaugurated by the Director, Urban Affairs, Govt of Meghalaya in the presence of Mr A.Lyngkhoi, Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering and State Coordinator, SBM (Gramin), Meghalaya, Mr Mark West, Consultant, Sanitation and Water, Govt. of Meghalaya, Mr S.L.Singhania, Headman, Police Bazar and Mr Nicholas of 91.1 FM Radio-Mirchi.
The speakers exhorted the youth to bring about transformational change in our mindset towards pollution. They urged upon the gathering to discourage the use of plastics and save the planet from going under the garbage. The function was presided over by Dr. Subhasish Das Gupta, Head, Department of Environment and Traditional Ecosystems, Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong.
The brief function was followed by an extensive cleaning of the Police Bazar area, one of the busiest markets of Shillong. The students and teachers of the University segregated the waste in to various categories like PET bottles, multilayered packaging bottles, branded plastic products, non-branded plastic products and sanitary napkins among others after collecting it from the whole market.
This formed a part of the waste audit that was carried out by the student volunteers to get a comprehensive idea about the nature of waste generated. This was followed by sorting the waste in to categories by a process called “Brand Audit” which involved identification of brands most commonly preferred by people contributing to the larger share of the waste after its use is over.
This event was a sequel to the 2-day workshop on “Zero waste World” held at Gangtok in Sikkim from 11th to 12th May,2018 to discuss the problem of solid waste management with special emphasis on plastic waste management in the Himalayan mountain states including the North-Eastern Region organised by Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI), a registered society devoted to the cause of environmental betterment in the Himalayas and a non-governmental organisation ‘Zero waste Himalayas’ in association with Rural Development Department, Govt of Sikkim.
The report of today’s clean-up operation from all the 12 states would be compiled and submitted to the Hon’ble Minister, Forest, Environment & and Climate Change, Govt. of India on the 1st June,2018 at New Delhi.This entire effort in tune with the theme of this year’s World Environment Day Celebration “Beat Plastic Pollution” on 5th june,2018 where India has been chosen as the global host.
