On the occasion of World Cleanup Day, the RWA in association with an NGO planned to involve our hardworking sector sanitation workers along with some passionate residents in the awareness activity on 16th September 2023. All the workers were given a T-shirt and a cap. We did a small awareness rally in our sector market area emphasising the importance of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) followed by some snacks and a drink to re-energize us. We played some games reflecting the importance of teamwork, and a fun quiz to challenge our brain about the basics of hygiene and cleanliness. Along with all the necessary cleanliness insights, the sense of a team and equality created between the residents and our helper didis and bhaiyas, was a beautiful feeling. It made me realise that a simple tuning and understanding between us can create such a big impact in the city. When all of us start doing our job of segregating our waste at source, our workers will be able to do their job much more effectively and efficiently in taking the segregated waste to the right disposal destination.
On September 17, Clean Noida volunteer did a plogging drive in sector 18 market early morning and took a pledge to continue to take efforts to keep our Noida clean and green. I feel grateful that a few enthusiastic eco-warriors of our sector 40 also took part in the drive where we collected nearly 100kgs of dry waste off the streets with our own hands. Some usual and unusual waste items that I collected in maximum quantities in the area I was covering were:
1. Bottle Caps. You know PET bottles are recyclable but did you know most bottle caps can be recycled as well, as they are made of HDPE(or PP). But since the caps alone are small pieces of plastics; when thrown on the street, they’ll hardly ever be picked up and sent for recycling. Please be careful to bin both together when you do and don’t throw the cap on the street wherever you open the bottle.
2. Single Use Cutlery, plates, glasses. By now, everyone knows we should avoid single use items as it takes a lot of natural resources and energy to manufacture, is thrown after 1minute of use, and stays on earth for multiple generations before degrading and decomposing. Kindly avoid single use items and if you happen to use them, kindly dispose it in the garbage bin and not where ever you finish eating.
3. Screen Guards with it’s foam and plastic packaging. Our old items break, we buy a new one. Now our gadgets look good but are our surroundings looking good? Let’s be aware of how to dispose various old products. Again, the least one can do it to put it in a bin and not on the street.
4. Cigarette Butts, cigarette packets, pan masala/tobacco packets, etc. What one feeds their body is a personal choice, but what are we feeding our mother earth?
She gave us nature in the purest form. Least we can do is be responsible for our own waste, and dispose our mess in the right way, or the cleanest and healthiest way possible. Let us make the habit of using dustbins. If you have to walk a mile for it, your trash can walk with you for a mile, and not be disposed on the streets. Let’s start segregating our own waste before handing it over to waste collectors and let’s encourage our friends, family and strangers for the same.
Our aim remains to promote a world without waste and uniting for a cleaner earth. We hope for more and more people to join us in such activities in our sector so one day we wouldn’t need to have a World Cleanup Day, and we can celebrate each day as a Clean World Day
