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