St. Joseph’s Bags the Plastic Pollution Free School Award
St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School, Sector 44-D, Chandigarh has been felicitated with the most coveted award, ‘ The Plastic Pollution Free School Award’ for the S.T.O.P. (Students Take On Plastic) Campaign at the special Award Ceremony organised by the Environment Department of Chandigarh in association with Yuvsatta. While bestowing the honours on the victors, Shri Debendra Dalai, IFS, CCF cum Director, Department of Environment, Chandigarh was fulsome in his praise for the phenomenal endeavour of the Josephian team in practising what they preach regarding the eradication of this Plastic peril.
The 45 days S.T.O.P. Campaign was launched on Earth Day and continued up to World Environment Day for which the Josephians stepped up the drive to wean off disposable plastic completely.
It’s no secret that Plastic, the wonder material that we use for everything and which pollutes our environment, creates perhaps the most harmful of trash. Combatting the dreaded menace is no mean feat, however, the Josephian Family has left no stone unturned in contributing to the eradication of single use plastic.
During these 45 days, numerous avant garde activities have been conducted to create awareness about the same.
It commenced with the CBC – Cloth Bag Campaign- which dealt with the promotion of replacing plastic bags with cloth ones.
The Nukkad Natak, ‘ Kapde ke Bag Apnaao – Plastic Hatao’ received a lot of love and appreciation for the message delivered by the power packed performance of the Josephian Street Rockers.
Students reached out to the citizens entreating them to switch to using cloth bags via the Cycle Rally and the H.O.P.E. Rally, living up to being the true Harbingers of Plastic Elimination. They visited various key points in the City Beautiful such as the Grain Market, Sectors 22 and 44 to distribute handmade paper and cloth bags, hoping to motivate both the sellers as well the buyers to adopt these.
The students also expedited the strategy of eliminating the use of plastic pens by distributing Fountain Pens at Government institutions such as The Mayor’s office, CCPCR and PGI.
The little Eco warriors, armed with huge placards and banners took a Pledge to denounce the use of single use plastic while addressing the Assembly at various Government Schools in an attempt to bring about awareness.
Furthermore, the school has helped to empower eight women of Sector 25 colony by providing them left over cloth material to make cloth bags which in turn were bought by the members of the Josephian Family.
The Paper Revolution is another effort that brought about cognizance of substituting plastic bags with paper bags made by the students.
The Josephians eclat of the handcrafted wooden keychains, bookmarks made out of old newspapers and paper straws, gained great acclaim at the Art Expo held at the Sukhna Lake. The Puppet Show was another great attraction wherein the Josephians entertained and enlightened one and all about the detrimental effects of plastic whilst entreating them to adopt eco friendly alternatives so as to protect our precious fauna which turn out to be the innocent victims of our mindless actions.
In addition to all these endeavours, after an enlightening session on E-Waste Management and Recycling, Josephians also participated in the E-Waste Recycling Campaign in collaboration with the Karo Sambhav Organization in which they collected old mobiles and handed them over to the Organization for the recycling process.
The pupils garnered prodigious praise for their untiring efforts during the Cleanliness Drive at the Mini Lake, Sector 42, Chandigarh.
Another remarkable Josephian masterstroke was the creation of the Community Bins which were fashioned out of the used Sprite Bottles.
The Members of the School Management congratulated the winners and lauded the effort of the staff and students, headed by their dynamic leader, Principal Ms Monica Chawla, the true force behind the success of the S.T.O.P Campaign. Ms. Chawla herself was overwhelmed by the superlative response by everyone the Josephian Family reached out to during the campaign and said that making India plastic-pollution free is not going to be easy and the responsibility is not limited to one stakeholder, each one of us as consumers has a crucial role to play. She further stated that it is by the grace of God that one gets the opportunity to usher the new generation in the right direction and she is eternally grateful for being able to do one’s bit to make our world a better place.
