KOCHI: The start of the new academic year saw various novel initiatives being implemented in schools in the district. One such green initiative was the introduced by Paravur Municipality. In an effort to reduce the generation of plastic waste, the Municipality decided to distribute cloth pencil pouches and ink pens to all students studying in school within its limits.
According to Ramesh Kurup, chairman, Paravur Municipality, at the start of every academic year, students buy new pencil boxes and ballpoint pens. “One can imagine the amount of plastic waste that gets generated when over 2,000 students throw away these boxes and pens after use. Hence, as part of an initiative to do away with plastics on school campuses, we decided to distribute pencil pouches made of cloth,” he said.
The cloth for the pouches was collected by the students from the tailoring shops, he added. “The pouches, numbering around 2,000, were stitched by Kudumbashree members and St Teresa’s College’s Bhoomimitra. These pouches also have a message that expounds the need to protect mother nature from the onslaught of the demon called plastic,” said Ramesh.