A group of youngsters has set out to find practical ideas to get rid of plastic waste with some help from the district administration.
The four winning teams of ‘Ideathon’, a platform for innovative ideas set up by Replace Plastic Initiative, AccelerateSD and Aster Volunteers with support from the district administration, have each focused on the three ‘R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) of waste management.
Two teams that won the first prize have focused on recycling through two different mobile applications.
Sergregation at source
The team comprising architect Sana Hameed, her sister Nida Hameed and her 10-year-old niece Fathima Tamanna presented the idea of a mobile application that can bring about behavioural changes among people. “The basic idea is to provide reward points to people to encourage source-level segregation of non-biodegradable waste. They can redeem the points from any of the shops listed in the mobile application,” said Ms. Sana. There will also be a gaming application for schoolchildren through which they will learn how to segregate, what to put together and what comes out of each item when it is recycled. “It is about nurturing waste segregation as a habit, right from the school days,” added Ms. Sana.
The team comprising Sivaprasad N., Rashid M.P. and Vipin M. from Ramanattukara, that shared the first prize, has come up with a mobile app, the idea of which is to coordinate the waste collection process of local bodies. The application will provide details on what kind of raw materials each recycler needs and the public can sort their waste accordingly. “There will be proper tracking and alerts will be issued when a waste collection is scheduled,” he said.
District Collector Seeram Sambasiva Rao mooted a mobile application that combines the features of the two, with some additional features to suit the requirements of local bodies in Kerala. He has enlisted the services of a start-up company for the purpose.
Second hand goods
The second prize-winning team comprises Akhina Mohan, Firoz Ahammed and Mohammed Mussafir, all students of the Central University at Kasaragod and are part of Fireflies, a group that promotes reuse. The team has come up with a mobile app that gives credit points for posting something that a person likes to donate or trash they would like to discard. “In India using something that is second hand is not popular. We plan to encourage the concept so as to reduce waste,” said Ms. Mohan.
The team that came third, comprising Shivangi Singh and Sarath Kurup, has come up with an idea to reduce the use of sanitary napkins so as to reduce plastic pollution. Their idea is to gift a pubescence hamper to every girl who hits puberty so that she is aware of the various environment-friendly options for menstrual care.
The four teams met the District Collector on Tuesday and discussed how their ideas could be implemented with the help of the local bodies in Kozhikode on an experimental level. Suchitwa Mission district coordinator C. Kabani and Corporation’s Health Officer R.S. Gopakumar were present.
