Chennai (The Hawk): Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched a ‘Punch the Plastic’ campaign, on the event of World Sustainability Day, being observed on 26th October 2022. It envisages deploying a new method to collect clean and dry plastic packaging for recycling options such as pyrolysis.
A ‘Sustainable Campus Collective’ has been formed by students, faculty, and Staff of IIT Madras. The drive is to raise awareness among the campus residents on waste segregation, minimising water and energy usage.
The drive was launched today (25th Oct 2022) in the presence of Ms. Shanti Sheela Nair, Retired IAS Officer, Prof Ligy Philip, Dean (Planning), Prof Nilesh J. Vasa, Dean (Students) and Prof. Indumathi Nambi, Faculty Advisor, Sustainable Campus Collective, IIT Madras, faculty and students.
Highlighting the importance of these initiatives, Prof Ligy Philip elaborated about institute initiatives in Wastewater recycling and a proposed bio-methnation plant for food waste.
Addressing the launch event, Prof. Indumathi Nambi, Faculty Advisor, Sustainable Campus Collective, IIT Madras, said, “We believe that every individual in IIT Madras community should contribute their bit and strengthen the administration's efforts towards making the campus the best in the country in terms of practising sustainability.”
Prof. Indumathi Nambi added, “The Sustainability Drive aims at making IIT Madras a truly sustainable campus in three aspects - zero waste campus, low carbon and low water footprint. The drive takes into its fold hostels, academic zones, residential zones, places of worship, shops and schools. It encourages all students, staff, faculty, residents, school kids, supporting contract workers to voluntarily participate and make it successful.”
Three major events were launched on the occasion. They include
Ø Punch the Plastic Drive: Packaging plastic such as snack packets and thin plastics from food delivery executives are non-recyclable as they are wet and dirty when mixed with other organic waste. They often end up in dumpsites or water bodies. IIT Madras students have designed two models of simple hook device to collect clean and dry plastic packaging to send them to recycling options like pyrolysis.
Ø Monkey Proof Food waste Dustbin Hackathon: IIT Madras has a significant population of monkeys which often forage in garbage bins, thereby disrupting waste management. While several dustbin models have evolved in IIT Madras, there is scope for improving the designs to a larger, robust, user-friendly monkey-proof model for wet and dry waste. A hackathon is planned and the best design will get funding for further prototyping and testing sponsored by Carbon Zero Challenge 2022
Ø Sustainability Champions Contest: An action and awareness on sustainability to all campus residents is planned through Sustainability contest to select the Sustainable Champions of residential, Academic and Hostel zone and also among the Vendors and Service providers in the campus. They will be ranked by doing a water, energy, waste and hygiene audit and green ratings will be used to judge the winning Sustainability Champions. The champions will receive a trophy during convovation. The Institute also intends to organise competitions across schools, hostels, academic and residential zones and expand their reach beyond campus. These competitions will definitely encourage all residents on campus to internalise and implement the idea of sustainability in their everyday life.