SATYANSHU'S CAS WORLD: Service - Recycling commences :)

The Recycling and Sustainability service programme at OSC has been quite successful in its initiation. Jennifer Andersson (http://jennand94cas.blogspot.com/) and I were chosen as co-leaders for this activity and we have been working under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood for this first month, i.e. September.

The following students will be taking part in Recycling and Sustainability for Semester 1:

Aagney Menon

Akila Liyanage

Amrit Dayanand

Greta Rocchi

Hyung Suk Cho

Ji-Yul Ha

Malaika Salman

Nathan Omprasadham

Patrick Hofbauer

Shikhir Sapra

Yoon Jae Hwang

Ysobella Grieve-Darcy

The first session was held on 6^th of September. On the day, a previously planned introduction and many organized ice-breakers were carried out to start the activity in order to promote group bonding and community service spirit. No recycling material was collected that day, and in its place, an inventory of recycling boxes was conducted in the whole school. Thus, groups were created based on random chits picked out of a basket. 5 pairs and 1 group of three were formed such that the co-leaders would alternately participate in the collection of paper. The other co-leader would maintain the recycling room and organize collected recycling material for transport to the recycling center. By the end of the day, I developed new skills of addressing students with a formal introductory speech by overcoming the challenge of speaking in front of a group as a leader, and guiding the students by leading as a role model.

Many changes such as adding a lock to the recycling room and attaching a rule sheet describing the aim of the service and the recyclable materials to the room differentiate this activity from last year, and ensure an organized and systematic system of functioning.

In the most recent session on 27^th of September, Jenn and I visited the recycling center together for the first time this semester and sold approximately 122 Kg of paper and 30 Kg of cardboard that had been collected over the duration of a few weeks. We earned a total of SL Rs. 910. Visiting the center has echoed the local and global importance of the activity to me. The service not only helps to implement and encourage the ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ system within the school community, however, on a local level it benefits the recycling centers which act as middlemen between the consumers, i.e. the disposers, and the recyclers, i.e. the processing and recycling companies. On a global level, the whole cycle is not only eco-friendly; however, it is the simplest solution to resource depletion related problems. David Morris aptly said that “The case for recycling is strong. The bottom line is clear. Recycling requires a trivial amount of our time. Recycling saves money and reduces pollution. Recycling creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration. And a largely ignored but very important consideration, recycling reduces our need to dump our garbage in someone else’s backyard.” Furthermore, on a personal level, I have been inspired by the ethical implications of this activity to see the usefulness of so called waste. As a result, I have decided to contribute old newspapers and other recyclable materials from my house to the school service instead of disposing them as waste.

By planning our weekly sessions meticulously and meeting at least once before every session, I feel that we, i.e. the co-leaders and Mr. Lockwood, have collaborated very well to pace the activity and completely set it on track for achievement of major goals through the year-long journey to come. The students enrolled in the service this year are active and diligent participants, and with their collaboration, Recycling and Sustainability can be successful in achieving its long-term goals while also spreading the message of eco-friendly and sustainable living to the school and local community.

Readers, you can follow Recycling and Sustainability @ OSC on http://recycling1011.wordpress.com/.

Given below are a few photographs from the recycling service sessions of this month. (Photographs by Mr. Ian Lockwood.)