In 2021, Rinku Das, an assistant teacher of physics at Baruipur Girls High School, West Bengal, hooked up with Kolkata-based non-governmental organization Greenovation, which does weekly collections of dry household waste, including plastic. She persuaded 30 neighbours to join the scheme. They each sort and store plastic waste in bags provided by Greenovation, receiving a small amount of money in exchange for well-sorted waste. “My neighbours are very happy to get this money from collected plastic,” she says.
Rinku recently approached the environment department of Calcutta University, which has also agreed to send all its plastic waste to Greenovation.
Rinku is currently using a video about the plastic waste problem in her municipality, Rajpur-Sonarpur, to petition her municipality. It highlights the importance of segregating waste and her efforts to persuade neighbours to use sustainable products.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and from 2016, Rinku had been organizing clean-ups along roads in Kolkata with her students. Through participation in the Tide Turners Challenge, her students are learning about the harmful impact of single-use plastics on ecosystems.
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