An initiative is taking root in the schools of Chennai, urging its students to recycle paper, and minimise their ecological imprint on the earth. The reasons for the same are manifold: recycling one tonne of paper saves as many as 17 trees, 40,000 litres of water, 1.35 MW of energy and 400 kg of fossil fuels.
The social enterprise MESA – Make Earth Smile Again, in order to motivate the youth, launched MESA Recycle Mania, an initiative which has about 200 schools registered with it. It involves educating school students about the benefits of recycling and encouraging them to recycle paper.
The initiative was formally launched at the St Anthony Anglo-Indian High School here recently, with school teachers and students dropping old newspapers into a large cardboard box for recycling.
Chief guests on the occasion were Saravanan, project manager at a software organisation, and social activist and former president of the Washington Tamil Sangam Vijay Anand. Speaking on the occasion, Saravanan and Anand exuded happiness at the involvement of children in such events, which, they said, will achieve positive results. They also wished for the success of the initiative.
MESA senior manager Andrew briefly explained the features of the initiative. “As part of the first phase, we intend involving students of 100 schools, and educating them on the issues involved. We also solicit the sponsorship of corporate organisations in our endeavour,” he added.
A poster was also unveiled on the occasion. The school children present were buzzing with excitement, grasping all that the speakers were talking about, despite the topic being a serious one.
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