CHENNAI: The Director of School Education has instructed all schools to avoid using Single-Use Plastics (SUP), both, within and outside the school premises, through a circular on Tuesday. Further, in order to help students recycle the SUPs they already have at home, the director has asked schools to tie up with local bodies and collect and pass on the waste from the school to a proper disposal or recycling unit.
SUPs including plastic bags, styrofoam cups and plastic cutlery among others, should be collected by schools and awareness should be spread on alternatives among students. “Suitable instruction may be given to headmasters, to encourage children and teachers to write songs, poems, and jingles, discouraging the use of SUP,” the circular said. The initiative comes as a part of the Central government’s Swachchata Hi Seva (Cleanliness is service) campaign, through which mass awareness will be conducted on plastic waste management, preparation for collection and disposal of plastic waste. This year’s theme for the campaign is Plastic Waste Management.
The campaign will begin on Wednesday and run all the way until Gandhi Jayanti when a mass SUP collection drive should be conducted by schools, the circular said. Further, from October 3-27, the collected waste should be recycled or disposed effectively, the circular said. The Tamil Nadu government has, however, enforced a ban on single-use plastics with effect from January 1, this year. The announcement regarding this, was made in June 2018, by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in the Assembly. “Let us gift a plastic-free Tamil Nadu to the future generation,” he had said.
Swachh Bharat Mission
The campaign will begin on Wednesday and run all the way until Gandhi Jayanti when a mass SUP collection drive should be conducted by schools, the circular said