Haritha Keralam Mission, which aims to promote environmental conservation, will soon make its presence felt in educational institutions in the district with a green protocol, leading to the step-by-step implementation of the ban on the use of plastics.
Aided and government schools will be brought under the green protocol. This will be monitored by a committee comprising local panchayat authorities and the District Suchitwa Mission.
Officials say the green protocol has been found very successful in various phases of its trial run across the State. It was in place during the Kerala State Youth Festival and district-level youth festivals. The Tourism Department and organisers of various government functions too are now sticking to the concept buoyed by the overwhelming response from various quarters.
Material Recovery Facility
Along with imposing a ban on bringing plastic products, schools will have a common facility to stock the plastic items and send it for timely recycling. The installation of Material Recovery Facilities is under the consideration of local bodies to support the implementation of green protocol.
District Suchitwa Mission officials say that the first Material Recovery Facility will come up in the limit of Kunnummal grama panchayat. Segregated plastic items will be processed here and handed over to the large-scale plastic industries. Plastic trashes segregated from various households too will be accepted at this unit which is set up in a 2,000-sq.ft building.
First step
To begin with, students have already been requested to avoid the use of plastic water bottles, lunch boxes and ball pens. Many of the schools have already started encouraging their students to use fountain pens as part of sticking to the green protocol. Even plastic schools bags are also likely to be discouraged in the future giving prominence to cloth bags.
District Literacy Mission officials say the use of plastic bottles and plastic lunch boxes has been found highly harmful to students’ health at a recent sample survey they conducted in various parts of the district. The implementation of green protocol will definitely address this issue, they say.
The introduction of solar power generation systems and biogas plants are also under consideration in various schools. Already, the district panchayat has short-listed 25 schools in Kozhikode district to start the installation of solar power units. The Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology will look into the cost-effective installation of biogas plants.
