PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to involve school teachers and principals in the Solid Waste Management initiative.
Solid Waste Management will give training of plastic segregation and disposal to these teachers.
The PMC will run the plastic disposal programmes in the schools with the students’ support. The PMC officials said students will be asked to collect the plastic in their homes. Instead of throwing it into the garbage bins, it should be given to schools. The processing like converting the plastic material into granules and crushing pet bottles will be followed.
PMC Solid Waste Department Joint Municipal Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Molak said, “The State government has banned plastic bags. The PMC is taking action against people who are carrying and supplying plastic bags. But, it is not enough to stop using plastic bags. So, we have decided to involve schools to increase awareness about the plastic ban.”
He said, “We will train teachers on how to identify different types of plastic material such as biodegradable and non-biodegradable. A team of PMC representatives along with NGO members will be formed for this collection.”
According to PMC officials, the first batch of teachers will be trained on December 20. A total of 100 schools including 50 private and 50 municipal schools will participate. The civic administration has planned to add 800 schools in this project. Each principal has to train at least two teachers. A total of 1,600 teachers will be trained along with 800 principals.
