Getting the Facts Straight, Planning Ahead—St. Joseph’s High School, Wadala


23rd September 2011 


The eco-leaders of St. Joseph’s Wadala have completed their waste audit! Our second session at this school began with the students presenting the findings of their waste audit, which was conducted over 4 days in the month of September.

The students concluded that the average waste per month, from the entire school, was 286 kg. They identified food waste as the biggest problem. This was followed by paper waste and plastic waste. Further, the audit indicated that a system for segregation of waste needs to be set up and maintained.

The students also interviewed their Principal Fr. Bernard regarding the waste policies of the school, and made a video recording of the interview. The Principal stated that while the school does not have an environmental policy yet, the management and students will work together to draft an Environmental Vision Statement for the school. The students also asked the Principal whether the school’s environmental initiatives can be extended to impact the neighbourhood as well. To this, he replied that programmes such as ‘Green Ganesh’ were the first step in this direction.

The procedure followed during the audit was explained by the eco-club teacher Ms. Padmini. She stated that the teachers held a special staff meeting before the audit began, and assigned each section of the school to a particular teacher and student leader for supervision. This way, the entire school was involved in the audit.

After the presentation, the GreenLine team discussed with the students the ways in which to set up a Waste Management System in the school. The discussion emphasized that when students are involved in waste management, the actual quantity of waste reduces. With this in mind, the eco-leaders of St. Joseph’s Wadala are now starting work on setting up a comprehensive waste management system in their school. And if the way they did their waste audit is anything to go by, the results are sure to be impressive!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Ideas to Action—Sacred Heart High School, Vashi

Image
25th January 2011 ‘This is my plant!’ piped a tiny student of Sacred Heart High School, proudly showing off her sapling. We were impressed—these students, and their eco-club in particular, have taken decisive steps to make their school a greener and healthier place.       Our visit began with the eco-club, led by their teacher Mrs. Nirmala, showing us their garbage management system, where wet waste is composted and used as fertilizer for plants. This led us to their next initiative, a small garden of medicinal plants. They then explained how they’ve succeeded in combining environmental consciousness with utility by setting up an organic garden where they grow vegetables with the manure generated from the school’s wet waste. They also went on to show us how they are trying to involve other students in their greening activities by getting them to bring their own plants to the nursery.
Read more

The Bird that goes: Tuk-Tuk-Tuk..

Image
Did you know that Mumbai has its own dedicated ‘city bird’? You might think that this title has been given to the common crow or the blue rock pigeon or maybe even to the house sparrow; because these are birds that Mumbaikars come across all the time. But what if I tell you that none of the above hold the coveted title of being our 'city bird'?  The city bird of Mumbai is the Coppersmith Barbet and it is also known as the Crimson-breasted Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala). This bird is more often heard than seen and it is known to make a monotonous call that goes like, tuk-tuk-tuk. The call resembles a coppersmith repeatedly hitting a copper sheet and this is how it gets its name. The Coppersmith Barbet is also known to make an early morning call to welcome the sunrise. Haven't you heard this call in your locality? Coppersmith Barbets can be found near wooded areas, gardens and possibly even in the greener patches around your residence. They often inhabit
Read more

St. Paul's Convent, Dadar Girls Get Set to Audit School Waste

Image
September 13, 2011 Team GreenLine saw itself at St. Paul's Girls' Convent High School, Dadar on a warm Tuesday morning, and it was there to conduct the school's first session, in this, the Second Edition of the Green Schools Campaign.There were a good number of things we noticed as we entered the school premises itself. For one, even though there is not too much space that the school can consider its campus, there is a whole lot of environment-friendly work being done here. We noticed a number of trees all around, and also the presence of dustbins all over the place. What however, really caught attention was the fact that even though the school was going through a recess, and even though there were students eating all over the place, there was not a single chip packet, chocolate wrapper, or food waste anywhere to be seen. This shows that the girls know the value of keeping the school as tidy as possible and also that unnecessary wastage itself is wrong.  Our session s
Read more