BENGALURU: At least 30 children from an apartment complex in Electronics City are spending their weekends in a more meaningful way now. After sensitising residents of Deccan Palms Villa about segregating wet and dry waste, they focussed on disposal of e-waste this week.
The kids have been involved in reaching people about waste management by social activist Sheetal Purohit, one of the residents of the complex, which consists of villas, as well as flats. The complex has about 150 houses. The residents give wet and dry waste separately to the Anekal City Municipal Corporation. In May, the children were given a tutorial on segregation of waste at source. Since the schools were closed for summer holidays, they went to each house with posters and explained the significance to their neighbours.
Now they have taken up the task of sensitising them to the need for proper disposal of electronic waste. “This month, ever since schools reopened, we have been using the weekends for this purpose. The kids formed a group, went door to door, and collected about 50kg of e-waste, such as batteries, bulbs, wires and other such items. The trash will be sent to Saahas in Jigani for recycling purpose,’’ Purohit told CE. “We also organised several competitions for the students, like word search, jumbled words related to environment, and presentation on e-waste, so that they could first learn themselves and then be able to explain to everyone. They also visited houses with feedback forms for each resident to fill,’’ she said, adding that she now plans to conduct leaf composting lessons during the next couple of weekends.
Among the youngsters who took part in the drive was Rithivika Reddy, a nine-year-old student of Class 4. “We went to each house, collecting their e-waste, which was later put in a common bin. Last month, we had gone and told people to put dry and wet waste separately in different drums,’’ Reddy said, adding that she has also spread the lessons she learnt about waste segregation to her friends in school. When asked if she missed playing with friends during the weekends, Reddy said this was more fun and she liked it more.
The residents too find it nice to see the children engaged in the activity. H Haokip, a businessman, was happy to see the little ones at his doorstep. “It was cute to see them explaining one by one. They also took our feedback,” he said. “The impact of hearing things from them is big. It would not be the same if an adult had talked about the same issues,’’ he added.