Band of youth wages anti-plastic campaign

Bodduppal: Seriously concerned over the ecological degradation being caused by rampant use of single-use plastic and to educate the public to take recourse to plastic alternatives like tiffin boxes, jute bags and cloth bags, a group of social activists of Bodduppal have taken it upon themselves to take the lead.

Saini Naveen Kumar and his friends J Sai Krishna, Bharghav, Mahesh, Bhanu, Rohit and Shiva Reddy visit various meat shops and other concerns and request customers there to make use of steel carriers or jute bags.

The group has also distributed around 550 jute bags till date. Every weekend around 9 am, the group visits various meat shops and other kinara shops in Bodduppal and urges people as well as shopkeepers to avoid plastic bags.

Speaking to Hans India, Naveen Kumar said, "Now-a-days, be it in newspapers or on television, there are information campaigns with a message to public to make India plastic-free. But, to make that happen, there is a need to spread awareness about harmful effects of plastic among people.

In October, as soon as the plastic ban was announced, people stopped using it and but after a month I noticed that plastic was again in use and shopkeepers started giving them. So, we started a campaign ourselves to make shopkeepers give up plastic."

The group also visits weekly Monday market at Boddupal. Volunteers urge people to carry jute bags for shopping. In this novel cause, our friends have helped us with around Rs 15,000 to run this campaign. We have bought the bags at the wholesale market at Dhoolpet."

The group also runs a campaign whereby they give 1 kg rice and six eggs in exchange for one kg of plastic to marginalised people. "We are just taking small step in waging war against plastic and save the environment," added Naveen.