Details

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 05 June 2018

PULWAMA: Dolphin International School, Pulwama, kickstarted The Up-Cycling Club on world Environment Day, 5th June 2018. The project has been pioneered by the students of DIS to reimagine waste-disposal in Pulwama and to set a system for mobilising various stakeholders towards collective action. The first phase of the project included making of a 200 ltr. compost unit for school, sensitising students about segregation and setting up a maker’s lab to use dry trash for innovative problem solving. Students from all grade levels starting Pre-nursery to Grade 10 are actively involved in managing waste at school.

Each class has two dust-bins handmade by students to collect inorganic and organic trash separately. The organic trash from classes is moved daily to the compost unit. The compost unit is made with the aim to make manure for an on-campus green-house unit that school is setting up. The dry trash collected in school, from home and streets, has been stored in the maker’s lab and students across grades have made multiple innovative products using them. 

Mr. G N Var, President Private School Association, and Mr. Rohail Parrey, founder of Ecopeace also visited Dolphin International school on 5th June to encourage the project and promote the idea of student involvement in community waste-management and social problem-solving. Students took them through their journey of making the compost unit and the maker’s lab and the entire process of sensitising all students across the school. Mr. Var and Mr. Parrey highly appreciated the effort made by the students and their innovative approach towards a critical problem in the valley.

Mr. Var also recognised the effort by the Principal of the school, Ms. Lopa Shah and the chairperson Mr. Farooq Fazli, and mentioned that he sees this project as a benchmark for valuable practices in education. He also recognised the school as the first school in the valley to have pioneered such a significant movement. The Up-cycling Club marks the beginning of the 2nd phase of the project. The club aims to engage 3000+ children in managing waste produced in schools and households in Pulwama by helping schools set up their own recycling units.