The 21 Jan Trip !!!

The Big Big Clean Up at Mutthathi on 21 Jan - was a runaway success so to speak ! In all 37 volunteers ! From all walks of life.

Amount of Plastic collected : 33 sacks weighing 164 kg !!

Here are the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/contactcleanandgreen/CG21jan

Excerpts from the Trip Report of 21 Jan 2007

This was a big event so we hired a 50 seater bus and picked up the volunteers before leaving Banashankri at 7.15 Am. Sandeep and Sreepathi left at 6.40 am in Sandeep’s Scorpio to meet the Panchayat President, Fr. Abraham and the RFO.After breakfast at Kanakpura, the bus arrived at Mutthatti shortly before 10.00 am and after a short briefing from Sandeep on plastic collection and segregation the volunteers got to work.

Working in small groups and in pairs we collected the plastic which was largely poly bags, plastic cups and glasses and some amount of PET bottles.We also collected paper plates which were laminated or coated with silver foil. Volunteers took breaks in between but continued to collect plastic till about 12.30 pm, after which teams of 2 to 4 people started compacting the plastic in the large gunny and HDPE sacks which we had carried. As the sacks filled up we stitched the mouth with rafia to prevent the plastic from spilling out. With all the sacks stitched we came to the exciting part of weighing the sacks.

Sandeep had carried a spring balance and a nylon hammock in which 2 sacks were weighed at a time. In all 33 sacks with a record 164 kilos of plastic was carried into our bus and we headed for Bheemeshwari Fishing Camp for a well deserved clean up and lunch. Post lunch we shared ideas of how to improve our efforts in future and involve the local community. After a cup of tea the volunteers left for Bangalore at 4.45 pm.

The plastic was brought back to Bangalore and handed over to K K Plastic, who would recycle it. The highlight of this clean up trip was the presence of emminent members of the Forest Dept and the local community

1. The Panchayat President Sakri Bai, along with 3 other panchayat members
2. RFO, Mr.Kempa Gowda who interacted with our volunteers and spoke to the picnickers requesting them not to litter.
3. Fr. Abraham also volunteered to speak to the important community members to keep the place plastic free.

Mr. Nahar, Resident Manager, of JLR was kind enough to bring these people to the clean up site in his vehicle. He also spent time with the volunteers.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.