Paper Pile!

At the MCC cultural fest- Cul Ah! '09, we the members of greenShield held a sale of books which we made with our own hands, all the way from the coverpage right down to stitching it together. It was a hit where people appreciated our effort, the creativity of the cover pagee and the 50 books that we made were sold out within the first four hours. :)
Every semester, the unused pages of our science record books get waster because only 3/4th of the book , (or sometimes even lesser!)is used. Keerti & Madhu suggested that we collect those pages from our classmates and put it to use by showcaseing the ability to reuse paper and make usable books. At the end of the day, we had about 1700 sheets of paper.
In all the tasks of making the books, we were helped by greenShield volunteers and friends, Arunima, Rashmi , Spikey (vinay) and ( Sanchi to name a few) whose work was commendable.
The coverpages were designed by all involved, unique to their style. The pages were counted and separated into piles of 50 & 100 . Aishwarya & Rosh took over the task of punching in the holes using Aishwarya's punching machine. After everything was punched and piled up , we started stitching the books together and one by one everything fell into place.After a long, hardworking day, our books were ready with the greenShield message inside and only one thing kept us from finishing up.....That was the peak of it all, when we gathered around to perform the long awaited 'sticker placing ceremony'** even after a very long day's work, turned out to be fulled with laughter and screams!
**(Aishwarya's father very graciously agreed to print us exclusive greenShield stickers for our Paper Pile Project)

The paper pile was ready to be displayed and sold the next day at Cul Ah!'09. The books were priced between Rs35 and Rs 40 depending on the size & number of pages and also the effort that went into a particular book :P We also made bookmarks out of the papers we had remaining after the cutting process. Those were a hit too! as most people wanted a matching bookmark to go with their book. ha!

To summarise those three fun filled and rather hectic no to mention strenous days ended up with eleven highly satisfied greenShield members.

The most exciting part of it all was to have so many people (including our Principal and teachers) come back and ask for more of our books.

In addition , we invited the people of the Belaku Foundation* which employs village women in making paper and cloth ecofriendly products. We also invited the Kanyakumari Kalai Koodam (K4 -a women's self help groups which deas with articles made out of palm fibres), to come and sell their items.
It was exciting to watch gilrs walk around with chopsticks and earrings K4 and pretty stoles from Belaku.
Driven by the unexpected support from highly satisfied customers and our Principal, we are motivated to go on and go far with all that we have to do to " gaurd today for Tomorrow"!

-Nuts.

5 things you can reuse or recycle

If you're on a cleaning spree, then you'd come across the issue of disposing things you've tucked away for a very long time. If you're wondering what you should do about it, then here's what a Green Guru would tell you! First, consider if the "junk" can be reused or recycled.

Here are 5 things you can reuse or recycle:

1. The Plastic Problem:
Problem: Plastic, plastic everywhere,

in all the bottles, bags, and tupperware!

Unlike popular beliefs, the number within the triangle at the base, is not a reference to recycling capacity. It is just the composition or chemical make up of plastic.

1) Polyethylene terephalate (PET)
2) High density polyethylene (HDPE)
3) Unplasticised polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) or Plasticised polyvinyl chloride (PPVC)
4) Low density polyethylene LDPE
5) Polypropylene (PP)
6) Polystyrene (PS) or Expandable polystyrene (EPS)
7) Other, including nylon and acrylic

Solution: So, what you can do is simply collect all the plastic (ones which are clean- not moist) and send it to K and K plastics. This plastic waste management use plastic to make a mixture of tar and plastic to make smooth and durable roads. A smooth drive on Miller's road would concur what I just mentioned!

2) The Cloth Clutter:

Problem: Maintaining a wardrobe can be painful, especially if you've kept clothes since the time you were a kid!

Solution: Sending clothes to the charity is a good idea. Not only would you be helping a poorer section of the society, you'd also be saving up on fabric being processed.

Get creative! You could perhaps redesign your shirts and pants, all you need is a little inspiration and a tailor who understands your concept. Fabric can be used to make cloth bags as well! (Think about it, you could be a fashion guru at your college campus! wink wink)

3) The Gadget Garbage:

Problem: Old CPUs, television and computer spare parts, emergency lamps, batteries contain heavy metals including mercury, zinc, lead, cadmium etc which when oxidised, effects the nervous system on acute exposure and on chronic exposure causes kidney and liver disorders.



Most wastes are either burnt or dumped in a landfill or at a waterbody. So finding high levels of heavy metals in the ground water tables are compounded at wastes dumps.

Solution: e-waste or electronic-waste can be given to a specialised group of people who involve in reusing the metals from e-wastes. The Indo-German-Swiss based group called e-waste have their headquaters in namma Bengaluru. A simple phone call and all your e-waste will be picked up from your residence or company. Browse through http://www.e-waste.in/ to get in touch with the people from your city.

4. The Paper Pile:

Problem: If you are a student this resource will be abundant in your room! Notebooks, newspapers, magazines, envelopes, old phone book are other sources of paper wastes.

Solution: Hunt down that paperwalla or recycle your own paper! the video in this url link can show you how. (www.metacafe.com/watch/820961/how_to_recycle_paper_homemade_letter_paper )

This is perhaps a good idea if you would like a personally made recycled-paper book. I can't vouch that the paper you make in the first batch can be used, but if you've got skill and patience, you'd eventually learn the trick of the trade.

Solution for impatient people: unused pages from old notebooks can be torn, collected and re-bound. :)

5. The Faulty Furniture:

Problem: As you would imagine most furniture like in the 1970's are made out of wood. The resource is not a renewable one, unless the industries take care to replenish the barren land with fresh tree saplings. How often is that? NOT that often!

If you are finding it difficult maintaining or finding space or you are tired of looking at your old furniture at your crib, there's only one practical solution to it.

Solution: EXCHANGE it for better furniture! Call an old furniture dealer or even your local carpenter! Not only are you being economical but environmentally friendly as well as the wood used could be broken down to make other furniture or some wood craft.

Many a paper & cloth bag

Nanny(Keerthi) calls me one day saying that we probably have someone who might be able help us with Our 'No Plastic' Drive in college. ' Belaku Trust' , a support group for women( in the villages around Kanakapura ) who make a living by making Gorgeous, simply Gorgeous Cloth and Paper Products.
For Green Shield i think this was quite a big (yet mini) project in many ways. You see it was the first time we were interacting in a very business-like manner with an NGO. Up until now it was all through phone or email , very informal throughout. But here it was suddenly making it to meetings on time,visiting their office in JP Nagar, giving them dates well in advance, placing orders , talking in terms of stock & money ...and well i think you get what I'm saying.
So Rosh, Nanny & i go for our meeting (2pm-4pm slot as Ishviene called it) at Koshys. We (I,for one) expected to see a strict woman in a suit, drumming her fingers on the table impatiently (because nanny said she had been engulfed in the Corporate World for more than a decade!) ...instead however we found three women giggling away to glory( over something Barb said i assume) at a corner table .
The above mentioned name , Barb .. should give you a picture of a really ADORABLE 50 yr old hilarious Australian volunteer(she insists on not being branded a 'tourist'). She along with Malavika (Graduate in CBZ from Christ College, another clown , if i might add. Newly recruited to the Belaku Trust as Coordinater) and Ishviene( the Head of them all).
We spent a good 2 hours discussing all that had to be discussed and even radiating to other (totally irrelevant) issues, starting from the teeth grinding traffic in our city, to a typical day in Dubai.
We struck a deal, they were willing to keep a stall in our College for 4 days during the Cultural intra college fest "Cul Week". The stall would be open to all , from students and teachers, to parents and random visiters. The products which included Notepads, books, files, pens , greeting cards AND shawls, bags, belts scarfs and many such things would be sold at a Special College Discount.
Two weeks later , it was Cul Week. I as always started panicking!! well i had every reason to, we hadn't made any posters or divided the stall work (like we had promised the Belaku peeps) but again as always, everything worked out Perfectly!. We made a grand total of Rs 27, 600 over a period of 4 days, in the process making many college goers happy , spreading our message of saying NO TO PLASTIC ; to switch to cloth and paper instead , spreading social awareness and also having fun in the process (PLENTY PLENTY!!!!).
Not to forget making great friends at Belaku, with whom we hope to work with,
on many occasions in the future.

Big hug , going out to our Green Shield Members - Keerthi, Roshni, Katya( the posters u made in barely 3 seconds were great!) meghna (with your publicising antics), Madhu (who bought so much from her own stall..ahah!), Sapna (our dearest accountant!) Natasha , Aishwarya (for being a stupid and yet smooth seller) Yogi!
So repeat after me,
"Plastic ain't my bag!!"
To see the Catalog of Belaku Trust products, click!
www.belakutrust.org

Chet.