Joining hands with Clean & Green

Clean and Green is a group of volunteers (http://cleanngreen.blogspot.com/, mailto:cleanandgreen@googlegroups.com) who have conducted very similar campaigns in other parts of the state, and we thought we should join hands with them. The confluence forms a bigger community of volunteers and we also learn from their experiences. Here are some of the notes from our meeting with Roopa from Clean and Green.

Inventory needed

* Workman gloves – 50

* Garbage bags and/or gunny sacks (50)

* Large needle to stitch the gunny sacks

* Weighing scale

* Rakes (10, apart from the ones we can borrow from the Nandi Hills gardeners)

* Trashbins (12 monkey-proof ones)

* Basic first-aid kit.

Garbage segregation

The garbage that we collected should be segregated as follows

* This polythene covers.

* PET (bottles), ice-cream cups, spoons etc.

* Composite (Gutkha wrappers, Lays etc)

* LEAVE THE GLASS BOTTLES ALONE. They can injure people

Tips for volunteers

Please bring enough water. Rehydrate often.

Get a poncho and a cap.

The rains wash up the garbage to hard-to-reach places on the hill face. At least some of us need shoes with good grips. That said, let’s not taking any unwise risks.
Further action items

Please leave a comment if you want to take up one or more of these.

* Arrange for transportation (contact Rakesh Chandra from Oracle)

* Order food (Contact caterer at nandi hills)

* Buy bags, needles and gloves (contact Rakesh Chandra for the gloves and the rakes)

* Speak with KK Plastics to see if they want to consume the plastic that we collect. They use the plastic to strengthen asphalt that’s used on the roads.

* Contact Sandeep Chakravarthy. He can put us in touch with Vinay Luthra from KSTDC and Rajaram (who runs a waste management firm) to discuss some long-term garbage disposal scheme.

* Communicate our plan to the DC, Mr. Subodh Yadav. Discuss if he’s ok with branding on the dustbins.

* Buy paper bags to provide to the shop-keepers at the hill top. Decide the size and numbers (and any branding opportunities for our sponsors).

Litter-free Nandi Hills

Nandi Hills is a hill station situated about 60kms from Bangalore. Apart from all the lure that the place has just on account of being a hill, Nandi Hills has a lot of historical significance too. It also affords some magnificient views.

However, with the tourists comes the trash. The hill face is littered with polythene and paper. It is depressing no doubt. But while we were sulking over the apathy of the general population, we also wondered if we were really as helpless about the situation as we pretend to be. That’s how we came up with the idea of swarming the hill one day and cleaning up as much as we can.

When?
Saturday, 23rd August, 2008. (to begin with)

How can you help?
1. Ideas: How do we make this effort sustainable and not a one-time fad? How do we raise consciousness and stop people from littering the place in the first place? If you have conducted a similar exercise, we’d love to hear from you.
2. Hands: Leave a comment with a trackback if you want to join us on this drive. We’ll need vehicles to bring back the garbage too.
3. Sponsors: We need gloves and garbage bags for the volunteers. We also plan to set up a trash disposal system there with dustbins at regular distances. This costs money. Let us know if you would like to pitch in.

Send a mail to litterfree [at] ymail [dott] com.

or call 99809 40872

If you want to volunteer, put your name here http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pcg6l1lkoIvWHV7LIScCKMA&hl=en

The plan

- Enlist 40 volunteers.

- Hire a bus to ferry us to the hill. The plan is to reach there at least by 6:30 in the morning.

- Fill as many bags of garbage as possible. We have requested the authorities to send a garbage truck to move the trash to an appropriate landfill.