Thane: The Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) education department has launched an incentive-based initiative to promote plastic waste management, recycling and environmental conservation among civic school students.The initiative inaugurated by mayor Sharmila Pimpolkar will involve civic school students collecting plastic bottles, snack wrappers, plastic bags, mobile covers, shampoo bottles and plastic toys from their household every week and depositing them with the school and later sending them for recycling. Participating schools will record the plastic waste collected by their students and a digital record will be maintained, enabling the corporation to track the quantity of plastic collected and sent for recycling by each school. Students who actively participate will be periodically evaluated and felicitated.“The initiative will help students develop responsible waste-management habits, particularly waste segregation, plastic collection and recycling. Citizens should also take the responsibility for keeping their homes and surroundings clean,” said Pimpolkar.Meanwhile, additional municipal commissioner-2 Pradhant Rode stressed the need to reduce waste generation at source and dependency on the corporation services while DMC Mitali Sancheti, in charge of education, said the initiative was first replicated in three schools in Navi Mumbai during her tenure as the assistant municipal commissioner. “We are looking at moving beyond classroom-based environmental education by encouraging students to act for conservation. Plastic waste management is one of the most critical environmental issues in our country and we believe that eco-friendly habits inculcated from childhood will go a long way in tackling it,” she said.Angelo George, CEO of Bisleri International, which has been working with schools, housing societies and citizens since 2019, claimed their association with TMC schools would help strengthen their cause for environmental awareness. Meanwhile, activists have questioned why children are being encouraged to collect waste instead of being taught sustainable practices.
