IIT-Kharagpur students on mission mode to reduce usage of single-use plastic

Around 30 students of IIT-Kharagpur are on a mission mode to reduce usage of single-use plastic within the campus. They are all in the process of forming a student’s society, named 'Vision Prabaho'.

The society will tackle environmental issues and work towards creating awareness in collecting and disposing plastic waste, including e-waste. More than 500 students have shown interest in joining the society.

Barnali Chakrabarti, an environmental evangelist, said, "Segregation of waste is one issue and another is disposing the waste or reusing it. We hope these brilliant young minds will be able to come up with some innovation for urban Indians as plastic waste is a problem for both urban and rural ecosystems."

The society will undertake projects for coming up with innovative ways of organic, inorganic and electronic waste disposal.

Biswarup, a research scholar at IIT-Kgp, said, "We hold a great responsibility to actively participate in dealing with major environmental issues like the irresponsible use of plastics, waste and resource management, conservation of water bodies, preserving bio-diversity and reducing carbon footprint in and around campus. We emphasize on human-induced environmental changes in recent years. We wanted to apply our own understanding to spread awareness and make changes."

William Mohanty, President of the Technology Students' Gymkhana, IIT-Kgp, said, "Vision Prabaho will be a unique society not just here, but across all IITs, considering that our campus is a mini-township and is witnessing challenges quite similar to urban areas, though at a smaller scale."