Effective Recycling Campaign

Project Leader(s): Esha Nair, Yash Agarwal

School(s) Involved: The International School Bangalore (TISB)

City: Bangalore

As students, we have a duty to protect and cherish our grounds and ensure that future generations can use our space without discomfort. Numerous threats to the environment cause destruction of the ecosystem, however, one of the most serious dangers to this ideal is the waste problem.

TISB had implemented a segregation system by allocating three different bins, green bin for wet waste, blue bin for dry waste, and red bin for reject waste. However, students did not have a clear understanding of the method, hence dropped their trash without correct segregation. Therefore, the project team decided to provide a solution for the poor management of the recycling process at TISB.

Esha Nair and Yash Agarwal, the members of the team, said,

“This year we plan to increase the effectivity of waste segregation in the school by raising awareness. This will be an eye-opening experience as we realized that the student body was misinformed about where certain types of waste belong and that it was our responsibility to raise awareness. In doing so, we hope that our small contribution, alongside many other small contributions, brings a positive impact to make our world more sustainable and to take care of our environment.”

The team started with a survey to identify the student body’s thought process when it comes to how they are segregating their waste and whether they accurately know what kinds of waste belong to which dustbins.

From the survey result, it was shown that most of the students were confused with the waste segregation system. Therefore, hoping to make the recycling efforts of the school community more effective, the project team decided to renew the design of the three bins to help students and teachers understand the correct use of each bin. They focused on making a simple design that could efficiently deliver the core information and avoid any further confusion in segregation.

Several students suggested that the initial names of the bins - “Wet Waste”, “Dry Waste” and “Reject Waste” - were increasing the confusion due to the ambiguity to determine the condition of waste. For example, some students put smoothie bottles to the “Wet Waste” bin since it is wet inside, whereas some students put to the “Dry Waste” bin since the plastic material itself is dry.

To remove this problem, the new posters were designed with the names of materials and simple, iconic diagrams to ensure easier interpretation. Although the posters could not be implemented due to the COVID19 situation, the project team is looking forward to presenting the new designs in front of the school community as soon as the school reopens!