SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
4620 kgs!
(82 kgs + 137 kgs + 506 kgs + 117 kgs + 513 kgs + 730 kgs + 915 kgs + 620 kgs + 1000 kgs app.)*
Today was a litter-picking day with a difference for two reasons.
For the first time, we focused on concrete debris (bricks, grit, fragments etc.), which we had always dreaded for its weight and presence. This time we enlisted the support of the mayor and the KMC, which allocated two mini-trucks to help us cart away the concrete debris.
The result was that we extended the frontier in litter-picking. We focused on the heavy-duty stuff, we focused on the green payment stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue (the same road as Menoka Cinema) and we removed sheets of concrete debris until we could see the brown of the ground again.
We were fortunate in having a considerably larger turnout of 60 student volunteers who worked from around 615 am to 8 am. The result was around a tonne of collected debris. This is what we did: shoveled the debris to as close to the pavement edge where other volunteers bagged the debris and yet another team hauled it into the waiting KMC vehicle. We covered nearly 100 linear feet and expect to proceed along the pavement line on Sunday (22 March) as well. Our objective: a sidewalk completely debris-free so that its soil is ready for rejuvenation and replanting (something that has not happened for years in the area!).
Before we end, a big thank you to…
The mayor Mr Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya for engaging the support of the KMC volunteers right down to Arun Sarkar (Principal Engineer), Shreemanto Ghoshal, Shyamalendubabu and Mihir Mukherjee (local KMC face). We are also grateful to the KMC boys who drove the trucks and cheerfully helped us haul the heavy debris bags on to their vehicles.
The students of La Martiniere (Girls and Boys), St James and Loreto House.
The residents of the area who revived our spirits periodically with drinking water.
This is how you can can this mini-aandolan ahead:
Join us to pick the litter. It is more fun that you think!
Do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help? Send him / her our numbers.
Can you identify some really dirty spots (full of plastic and paper waste) in the city that we can possibly clean? Lead us!
Please contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
* Our 3000 kgs of collected waste has comprised wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, coconuts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
3000 kgs!
(82 kgs + 137 kgs + 506 kgs + 117 kgs + 513 kgs + 730 kgs + 915 kgs)*
What a day!
We hit the three-tonne mark today in garbage collecting across Kolkata’s green areas on Sunday, 15 March 2009! Concurrently, we also reached our record single day collection of 915 kgs. And in doing so, we also created a record for the highest garbage collected in a single jute bag (55 kgs).
915 kgs – and with only about 22 volunteers. That’s an average of more than 40 kgs of waste per volunteer.
This record collection was the result of the following:
High enthusiasm among the students of La Martiniere Girls; after we had supposedly finished for the day, five of them decided to go back to collect again so that we could touch the day’s figure of 915 kgs and our consolidated magic number of 3 tonnes!
We were fortunate to be in a highly garbage-compact area, diagonally across the Birla Academy on Southern Avenue; a number of places were half a foot deep in plastic and coconut waste!
We were just next door to the vat so liquidating our bags of garbage and returning a second time was relatively easy.
We stayed in longer (two and a half hours instead of the usual two hours) and we just got better
Our forthcoming agenda:
Regroup on Thursday, 19 March 2009, at the same place (diagonally across Birla Academy )
Get through to the mayor and seek his help on how we can get bricks etc off the green (heavy!)
Put in a morning of ripping posters and placards off trees (nailing them is illegal!)
There is a possibility of three more schools joining our effort – Akshar, St Xavier’s and Pratt Memorial. Welcome!
This is how you can help:
Join us to pick the litter. It is more fun that you think!
Do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help? Send him / her our numbers.
Can you identify some really dirty spots (full of plastic and paper waste) in the city that we can possibly clean? Lead us!
Please contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
* Our 3000 kgs of collected waste has comprised wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, coconuts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc
3000 kgs!
(82 kgs + 137 kgs + 506 kgs + 117 kgs + 513 kgs + 730 kgs + 915 kgs)*
What a day!
We hit the three-tonne mark today in garbage collecting across Kolkata’s green areas on Sunday, 15 March 2009! Concurrently, we also reached our record single day collection of 915 kgs. And in doing so, we also created a record for the highest garbage collected in a single jute bag (55 kgs).
915 kgs – and with only about 22 volunteers. That’s an average of more than 40 kgs of waste per volunteer.
This record collection was the result of the following:
High enthusiasm among the students of La Martiniere Girls; after we had supposedly finished for the day, five of them decided to go back to collect again so that we could touch the day’s figure of 915 kgs and our consolidated magic number of 3 tonnes!
We were fortunate to be in a highly garbage-compact area, diagonally across the Birla Academy on Southern Avenue; a number of places were half a foot deep in plastic and coconut waste!
We were just next door to the vat so liquidating our bags of garbage and returning a second time was relatively easy.
We stayed in longer (two and a half hours instead of the usual two hours) and we just got better
Our forthcoming agenda:
Regroup on Thursday, 19 March 2009, at the same place (diagonally across Birla Academy )
Get through to the mayor and seek his help on how we can get bricks etc off the green (heavy!)
Put in a morning of ripping posters and placards off trees (nailing them is illegal!)
There is a possibility of three more schools joining our effort – Akshar, St Xavier’s and Pratt Memorial. Welcome!
This is how you can help:
Join us to pick the litter. It is more fun that you think!
Do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help? Send him / her our numbers.
Can you identify some really dirty spots (full of plastic and paper waste) in the city that we can possibly clean? Lead us!
Please contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
* Our 3000 kgs of collected waste has comprised wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, coconuts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc
Monday, March 9, 2009
1,355,000 grams...
SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
82,000 grams
+ 137,000 grams
+ 506,000 grams
+ 117,000 grams
+ 513,000 grams
Of wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.
It was a day of landmarks!
These are the two achieved: our motley collection of children and a few adults crossed the ONE TONNE mark in garbage collection; we achieved a record morning collection of 513 kgs (beating our previous best by 7 kgs).
And these happened for some pleasantly unexpected reasons.
Members of St James’ Nature Club turned up for the first time.
Some locality residents decided to sit on the fence no longer.
Some morning walkers stopped, thought and then asked, ‘Can we join?’
Absolutely unknown people volunteered their Ikons and Marutis to cart the garbage to the KMC vat
The result is that we ran short of collections bags, had to take the first load of bags to the vat, empty them and immediately drive back and hand them over for effective collecting.
This is what we did:
Cleaned and collected on the patch of green (sorry, brown) in front of Menoka Cinema.
Encountered more bricks, concrete and fragments than before so allocated teams to address these heavy duty items specifically.
Continued to attack plastic and paper.
The agenda for the coming week:
Add a weekday and Saturday collection sortie
Network with the KMC on how we can get bricks etc off the green (really heavy stuff!)
Put in a day of ripping posters off trees (nailing them is illegal!)
The team will resume its cleaning exercise at 6:00 on Saturday and Sunday and work until 8 across the Menoka Cinema stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue .
“We intend to have a larger turnout next Sunday as some students are likely to join in with their exams getting over,” says Arman Sood. “Our target is to get to two tonnes of consolidated collected waste next Sunday!”
Will you join?
Or do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help?
Please ask her / him to contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
82,000 grams
+ 137,000 grams
+ 506,000 grams
+ 117,000 grams
+ 513,000 grams
Of wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.
It was a day of landmarks!
These are the two achieved: our motley collection of children and a few adults crossed the ONE TONNE mark in garbage collection; we achieved a record morning collection of 513 kgs (beating our previous best by 7 kgs).
And these happened for some pleasantly unexpected reasons.
Members of St James’ Nature Club turned up for the first time.
Some locality residents decided to sit on the fence no longer.
Some morning walkers stopped, thought and then asked, ‘Can we join?’
Absolutely unknown people volunteered their Ikons and Marutis to cart the garbage to the KMC vat
The result is that we ran short of collections bags, had to take the first load of bags to the vat, empty them and immediately drive back and hand them over for effective collecting.
This is what we did:
Cleaned and collected on the patch of green (sorry, brown) in front of Menoka Cinema.
Encountered more bricks, concrete and fragments than before so allocated teams to address these heavy duty items specifically.
Continued to attack plastic and paper.
The agenda for the coming week:
Add a weekday and Saturday collection sortie
Network with the KMC on how we can get bricks etc off the green (really heavy stuff!)
Put in a day of ripping posters off trees (nailing them is illegal!)
The team will resume its cleaning exercise at 6:00 on Saturday and Sunday and work until 8 across the Menoka Cinema stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue .
“We intend to have a larger turnout next Sunday as some students are likely to join in with their exams getting over,” says Arman Sood. “Our target is to get to two tonnes of consolidated collected waste next Sunday!”
Will you join?
Or do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help?
Please ask her / him to contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
842,000
SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
82,000 grams
+ 137,000 grams
+ 506,000 grams
+ 117,000 grams
Of wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.
Report
Ok, so this was our first Sunday of a decline in collections.
Not unexpected. Most students, who had turned up at six am over the last three Sundays, decided to stay home to study this time round. The surprise is not that 20-25 students did not turn up; the surprise is that around eight did.
So what we collected (117,000 grams) on Sunday 4 (1 March 2009) in our Save Southern Avenue Project 2009 was encouraging. Taking our total to 842,000 grams across four collections days.
The team of young adults (6-16 years) comprised local residents. A mention must also be made of adult residents who donated specially manufactured jute bags to collect waste and others who contributed gloves.
The young adult team resumed its cleaning exercise at 6:00 and worked until 8 across the Menoka Cinema stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue . Thereafter, the waste was weighed and disposed under supervised guidance in the plastic segment of the waste vat on Southern Avenue .
“We intend to have a larger turnout next Sunday as some students are likely to join in with their exams getting over,” says Arman Sood. “”Our target is to cross a tonne of collected waste next Sunday.”
The team of green crusaders intends to repeat this exercise at 600 am on Sunday, 8 March 2009.
Can you join?
Or do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help?
Please ask her / him to contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
82,000 grams
+ 137,000 grams
+ 506,000 grams
+ 117,000 grams
Of wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.
Report
Ok, so this was our first Sunday of a decline in collections.
Not unexpected. Most students, who had turned up at six am over the last three Sundays, decided to stay home to study this time round. The surprise is not that 20-25 students did not turn up; the surprise is that around eight did.
So what we collected (117,000 grams) on Sunday 4 (1 March 2009) in our Save Southern Avenue Project 2009 was encouraging. Taking our total to 842,000 grams across four collections days.
The team of young adults (6-16 years) comprised local residents. A mention must also be made of adult residents who donated specially manufactured jute bags to collect waste and others who contributed gloves.
The young adult team resumed its cleaning exercise at 6:00 and worked until 8 across the Menoka Cinema stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue . Thereafter, the waste was weighed and disposed under supervised guidance in the plastic segment of the waste vat on Southern Avenue .
“We intend to have a larger turnout next Sunday as some students are likely to join in with their exams getting over,” says Arman Sood. “”Our target is to cross a tonne of collected waste next Sunday.”
The team of green crusaders intends to repeat this exercise at 600 am on Sunday, 8 March 2009.
Can you join?
Or do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help?
Please ask her / him to contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.
Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!
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