TERI and Tetra pak India launch environment education programme

Updated on: Monday, October 08, 2012

In order to sensitise students about the importance of waste management and the importance of practicing sustainable life styles, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Tetra Pak India have launched an initiative — 'Cartons to Classrooms' under Project SEARCH, an environment education programme, which was held in Bangalore.

Taru Mehta, Associate Fellow, TERI, said, "The core of the initiative lies in collection of used Tetra Pak cartons by school students and the larger school community. These cartons, made primarily of paper, will be recycled into furniture that will be donated to an underprivileged school. Now in its fourth year, Project SEARCH reaches out to over 1,70,000 students in six cities in India and one city in Bangladesh."

As part of the initiative, students collected post-consumer Tetra Pak cartons from schools, homes and neighbourhoods for the launch ceremony.

"Tetra Pak cartons are made up of paper, aluminium and polyethylene . Once the cartons are recycled, the paper gets converted to pulp, which in turn gets converted to different GSM (unit for density of paper) paper. The other two components ; aluminum and polyethylene are put together under high pressure and high temperature to make solid sheets, which can be moulded into furniture, almirahs, roofing sheets, etc," she says.

Explaining what will be done with the cartons, Mehta says that the Tetra Pak cartons will be recycled and made into desks and benches that will be donated to a school-in-need in each project city. "It is also about taking ownership of the waste generated by each one of us and making efforts to increase the product's life cycle by recycling it," she says.

Students in the age group of 10-18 years participated in the programme. "School students are the torch bearers who will take the message of recycling and the four R (s) — refuse, reuse, reduce and recycle — forward. It is therefore important to provide them with the right information and educate them on the sensitive issue of waste. We also feel, students at this age have the maximum energy and through them, we can reach out to the larger community," she informs.

As part of Project SEARCH, this initiative was launched in Bangalore. It will be followed up in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.

TERI and Tetra pak India launch environment education programme

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