The giant tub filled with old clothes, stationery and plastic waste on the balcony for over four months, found a good home in a waste collection drive, held at Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, Chennai, this past weekend – January 6 and 7, 2023.
ROKA – Residents of Kasturba Nagar Association is an initiative run by the residents of the area in Adyar. The organisation is supported by the Greater Chennai Corporation and Wasted 360, an organisation that promotes sustainable solid waste management. ROKA aims to reduce the amount of everyday home waste going to landfills by organizing various collection drives and events around Chennai. Over the years, they have organised collection drives that bring together E-waste, old clothes, shoes, bags, stationery, toys, and hard & soft plastics.
Coming all the way from Navalur to the Adyar collection drive, it was amazing to see how cleverly each type of waste was segregated. This showed the ways that humans pollute the environment. Spaces were allotted to collect E-waste, old clothes, plastic bags, bottles, toys and stationery. Speaking about the drive, Ms. Janani Venkitesh, Secretary of ROKA says, “The drive collects 12 categories of waste and over 400 people have come to contribute from across Chennai over the two-day event”. She extended her thanks to the volunteers from Loyola College who helped in this drive.
Apart from collection, there was also a stall that taught people how to compost their wet waste in their backyard or even balconies. A thrift stall also had recycled items that had been refurbished and made new again. Outside the hall, a truck from Wasted360 dispensed various cleaning liquids, laundry detergents and handwash. All you need to do is bring your bottles and collect a litre of these liquids. This helps reuse old bottles and helps reduce the number of plastic waste generated by the household.
In this collection drive, visitors were able to understand the measures taken to segregate waste at home and what necessitates such necessary precautions. At home, attention is given to the conscious segregation of waste, with care taken not to dispose of old pens into the garbage bin, for example.
If you want to start segregating your waste at home, go to Wasted360’s Instagram or Facebook pages for methods to recycle at home. You don’t need to wait for ROKA’s next collection drive, just head to Wasted360’s collection point at their T Nagar Office (https://www.indiawasted.com/). The dispenser truck from Wasted360 is always on the move, check them out too to stock up on your cleaning liquids.
Here are a few handles to follow for environment-conscious people:
ROKA Contact Details:
Email- roka.drives@gmail.com Phone no.- 97911 03797
Instagram- @rokachennai
Facebook- ROKA – Residents of Kasturbanagar Association ((Future events will be announced on ROKA’s Instagram and Facebook pages))
Website- https://sites.google.com/view/rokawithnature/home
Well- written 🙂