Recycle Week programmes doing rounds in City

KOCHI: As part of the International Recycling Week, the NGO Plan @ Earth has come up with a string of activities in the city to spread the significance of recycling paper and plastics.Since Monday a mini van, displaying recycle message, has been doing rounds in the city and volunteers have been encouraging and educating various establishments on the importance of recycling every shred of plastic. The message is also passed on to school students through interactive classes with the help of audiovisual aids. "In just three days we have been able to collect more than 500 kg of waste paper and nearly 50 kg of plastic. The campaign is not about recycling the kind of paper that is conventionally sent for recycling like newspapers, notebooks and cartons. It is the stuff like bus tickets, lottery tickets, cinema tickets and other paper stuff one wouldn't think of recycling. These often get mixed up with other waste and end up in garbage piles. For every kilo of waste paper that is recycled one tree is saved," says the volunteers. The volunteers also approach shops and institutions asking them to take a peek into their waste paper baskets.