Waste paper can be used in many ways. A team of students from GITAM University are making use of it in shaping lives of several underprivileged children. An initiative of the Vedic Science Club of GITAM University’s School of Gandhian Studies, this social enterprise project is termed as ‘Reduce, Recycle, Reuse’ in which the club members collect old notebooks, papers discarded by corporate houses and educational institutions and recycle it to give new notebooks to the needy children of GVMC schools and ZP High Schools in and around Visakhapatnam.
Backed by the NGO Akshaya Patra, the Vedic Science Club has tied up with AP Paper Mills - one of the largest integrated paper and pulp manufacturers in India - in Rajahmundry for the project in its endeavour to reach out to 3,000 students this year.
“Our aim is to collect five tonnes of old notebooks this summer, which will fetch 30,000 new notebooks. As of now we have been able to collect 700 kgs of old notebooks,” club member and a final year B.Tech student Naresh Kumar Reddy told The Hindu. Vedic Science Club was formed last year with a team of 60 active members from the student community who are involved in various social causes.
As part of the ‘Reduce, Recycle, Reuse’ project, the club has reached out to 10 educational institutions and tied up with corporate firms like Visakhapatnam Port Trust and Pharmazell. “For a new batch of notebooks, 60 % of old pulp and 40 % of new pulp is required. Once we hand over five tonnes of collected old notebooks to AP Paper Mills, they will recycle the old books and provide the pulp to notebook manufacturers. In the first phase, we plan to cover 90 schools where each student will be given 10 new notebooks,” said P. Yasaswi, a final year B.Tech student and member of the Vedic Science Club. Various collection points are kept at Andhra University, GITAM University and other institutions. This apart, a separate collection box is placed at the Akshaya Patra office, Hare Krishna Movement, at MVP Double Road. The club members aim to speed up the collection drive in the coming week so that the fresh notebooks are available before the start of the next academic year. Those interested to donate old notebooks may contact the club at 7306592519.
