Kolkata 5th June, 2023: Marking the occasion of World Environment Day, SwitchON Foundation organized Plastic Sculpture Installation where children and youth came together to create art from plastic waste. Children and youth of implementing partners in Kolkata like Presidency University, NIFAA enthusiastically participated in the #BeatPlasticPollution campaign and collected a huge trash of plastic that if not collected would have ended up in landfills.
To reduce and reuse waste, especially plastic waste, children and youth of the city took up activities like collection of plastic bottles, polythene, single use plastic like straws, chips and biscuit packets from their surrounding vicinity and used those wastes to create art sculptures. The plastic sculpture of ‘Garden’ made of plastic was installed at Nicco Park Gate 1 and was inaugurated by Manab Bondyopadhyay, Dy. Director,West Bengal Co-operative Society, Govt. of West Bengal. Another plastic structure that was installed in Kolkata was ‘The Green Eye’ at the Presidency University where the middle portion of the eyeball has green saplings, and the rest is from plastic bottles.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Vinay Jaju, MD SwitchON Foundation said,: “Plastic Pollution has become one of the most pressing issues of the environment that is adversely affecting humans, wildlife and its habitats. SwitchON is committed to work towards creating a sense of awareness amongst the children and youth to reduce and reuse plastic waste and come up with solutions to beat plastic pollution. We have to stop using single use plastic on a war front mode.
Speaking at the event Mr Debasish Palit Dy. Secretary, School Education Dept., who unveiled the waste sculpture said, “It is encouraging to witness such an initiative by SwitchON Foundation and its partners to create awareness amongst children and youth how waste plastic can be used in a constructive way.”
A whopping 72% rise is seen in the average levels of air pollution in Bengal since 2017, according to the Central Pollution Control Board data, and the average AQI is found to be ‘poor’. The most toxic air pollutant, ultra-fine particulate PM 2.5, is the trigger behind the AQI leapfrog. Kolkata’s air quality is worsening than ever, and the PM 2.5 shoots up by 1.5 times in the industrial belts of West Bengal. In 100% of the cases, the 24hr average concentration of PM10 throughout the year contravened the NAAQS (100 μg/m3) limit. The maximum concentration of PM10 was observed during the winter season. Kolkata’s average air quality index in December 2022 was 254, which is 26% higher than the average AQI of December 2021. A detailed analysis of the CPCB data of West Bengal across 14 locations (Ballygunge, Bidhannagar, Fort William, Jadavpur, Rabindra Bharati University, Rabindra Sarobar, Victoria, Belur Math, Ghusuri, Padmapukur, Asansol, Durgapur, Haldia, and Siliguri), depicts that air quality is worsening over time and that the winter of 2022-23 has painted a worse scenario, to that of the winters of 2021-22. There is an increase of over 85% PM 2.5 in one year. Exposure to very poor air quality in the state is triggering “respiratory illness on prolonged exposure”.
SwitchON has approached the Environment Department and State Pollution Control Board to offer it as a knowledge & technical partner for taking immediate and holistic initiatives toward improving the air quality of the state in collaboration with various groups and organisations.
Some of the recommendations by SwitchON Foundation to the Environment Department and State Pollution Control Board for taking immediate and holistic initiatives toward improving the air quality of the state are:
- Technological Innovations: There is a clear need to switch from environmentally exploitative technologies to cheaper and greener alternatives.
- Promoting climate-smart e-agriculture: Promoting climate smart agriculture can turn the wheel in favor of West Bengal’s mitigation plans in tackling a degrading air quality,
- Undertaking reforestation and afforestation drives along roadsides and medians: This is recommended because West Bengal gets rampaged by severe super-cyclones every monsoon. The government should ensure replantation soon after. This can be taken in collaboration with PWD and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
- Promoting sustainable Urban Mobility: The Activities that can be taken up are promoting bicycle lanes, cycling and non-motorized transport, increasing distribution of electric and hybrid vehicles, encouraging electric two/three wheelers, timely technical checking of traffic lights, boosting last mile connectivity through clean/ e-Rickshaws, issuing guidelines for vehicle ownership and usage, mandatory scrapping of very old vehicles, third-party evaluation and certification of the transport systems need to be adopted.
- Action to mitigate air quality requires stringent action plans both at the national as well as sub-national levels coupled with efficient monitoring mechanisms.
- Industrial planning in mitigating air pollution should adopt a three-tier approach that takes into account revision of emission standards and practices, improve the audit process and accuracy-based bonus payment system.
- States should follow an integrated waste management system (IWM) to reduce methane and carbon dioxide released from landfills by decomposing organic waste dumped into these waste disposal grounds.
- Air Quality monitors should also be installed in the entire stretch of the East Kolkata Wetlands and the major landfill sites, as the Wetlands act as a major carbon sink for the city and therefore tracking the quality of air around the city would be provide an important database for other departments of the state to formulate policies around it.
- Generating public awareness and liaising with informed citizen bodies, CSOs, and NGOs through sustainable behavioral shifts is key to driving change when formulating policies in mitigating air pollution.
Media Dossier
Contact: Vinay Jaju | M: +91 9331178105 | Email: VJ@SwitchON.org.in
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