Dubai
It is said that to preach is one thing, but maintaining the practice of what you preach is taking it to a whole other level.
This time, on the annually much-awaited Earth Day, which fell on April 22, I launched an initiative called ‘The 3Rs Pick n Drop Green Box’. The aim of this initiative was to encourage reusing, reducing and recycling at the same time.
This box was an initiative I took in my building to inculcate the values of environmental conservation through practical and useful experience. As the new academic year has begun in most Indian schools, students will have loads of books from the previous academic year leftover, whilst they may need some books for reference that may have been used by their seniors.
That is the root cause of why this apt initiative for the ‘Earth Day month’, as I like to call it, became an astounding success. As soon as I spread the word, this box became a big hit, with children of all ages, coming and contributing books for recycling, while picking up the books that they required.
Even I am going to use the course and reference books that have been dropped into the box by my seniors and did not buy new books this time, in my efforts to go green.
Ebrahim Badshah, a grade eight pupil, said: “I was looking everywhere for a reference book, which is deemed to be quite helpful, but it was out of stock. I feel extremely elated to have found it in the 3 Rs Pick n Drop Green Box. I got the book I wanted and am going green, too!” Ebrahim contributed more than 100 books used by him and his younger sister.
A parent of a primary school student, Maimuna, also stated: “I have been preserving her books since pre-school because I did not want to throw them, but did not know what to do with them. This idea has given us the right medium for disposing the books in a beneficial manner.”
The initiative is still ongoing and coincides with Earth Day, too, and that is one of the days, I expected the largest outcome, breaking previous records. In the first week of this initiative, we managed to recycle more than 310kg of books, saving approximately five trees, 120 gallons of oil, one cubic yard of landfill space, 1,250 kilowatts of energy and 2,200 gallons of water.
I would like to thank Bee’ah, Sharjah’s Leading Environmental Co., for supporting my initiative and helping me recycle the books efficiently.
I encourage all readers to come and take part in this initiative. When you ‘drop’ a book, you are recycling, when ‘picking’ a book, you are reusing, and in the whole process, you are reducing waste to the UAE’s landfills.
The purpose of writing this report through Gulf News is so as to ensure that not even a single book goes into the trash.
Even though it may not be feasible to directly take part, I encourage all young budding environmentalists to start such an initiative in their building too, so that we can spread the chain. Who says ‘Pick n Drop’ is a concept used only in commuting?
— The reader is a grade 10 student at Delhi Private School, Sharjah.
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