IUNPB@VVN

IUNPB - IUNewsPaperBag project is a simple idea which believes in reduce plastics campaign. It is our small step towards a greener earth for our future generations. We promote a very simple solution to eradicate plastic bags usage by promoting the use of paper bags made from old newspapers. You can participate in our project by registering on http://www.iunewspaperbag.com/. All Indians can feel proud that this project which originated from Bangalore is one of the top projects listed under One Young World,

http://www.oneyoungworld.com/content/iu-newspaper-bag.

 

It was a special occasion on 14th of February, 2013 to celebrate the IUNPB project at a college level where in students of VVN degree college, Bangalore participated in making IUnewspaperbags. Feb 14th being a Valentine's Day, these students considered environment as their valentine and invested their precious 90 minutes in making IUnewspaperbags. There were more than 120 students who participated in this mega campaign. Prasanna Udipikar mam was the teacher coordinator who got this campaign happen in the college. She was supported by the principal and staff of VVN. The event kicked off sharp at 3:15 pm and closed by 5:00 pm during which these students had made 60+ IUnewspaperbags. At the end of the event all students were really happy that they had learnt a new art by which not only their creativity improved but also the environment was saved from getting polluted by plastic bags.

 

I was very happy to have been the project lead for this entire event and was enjoying every trip of mine into each of the classes cheering up the students with energy and enthusiasm. The feedback from both the teachers and the students was simply fantastic. I should also be thanking all the VVN college volunteers along with Beena Chowdry, Ankita, Soundarya, Mr. Anant, Amit and Mohan Kumar who had come from different colleges to support this campaign. One more milestone was achieved as this was the first campaign where foldable type of IUnewspaperbags were made at a large scale. If you're also interested in taking up IUnewspaperbag project in your institutions, do let me know on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Break your fear and love yourself

On february 4th,2013, I was glad to have been invited by VVN degree college for an inspirational talk to address close to 200 young ladies pursuing their graduation. The main convener for the event was Smt.Prasanna Udupikar who is a English lecturer in the same college. The talk was scheduled at 3pm but was delayed by thirty minutes as all the students had to come from their classes to the auditorium. All I knew when I entered the hall was that I was trusted with next 120 minutes to bring about a positive change in all these people.

 

The event kicked off with a wonderful introduction about me by madam. It was one of the best introductions that I had ever heard. Once I was given the microphone I made it a point to thank the almighty God, parents, teacher, friends and made the audience appreciate themselves with a round of applause. Then I discussed about what's happening in the current scenario as to how studies and marks are failing to motivate us to work hard. I also spoke about how visual and internet media are distracting us apart from providing us the necessary information. The fear of taking action and the problem of inferiority complex were addressed as well. I narrated the example of Lizzie Velasquez and the audience learnt a great lesson about how they should come out of inferiority complex and face the world.

 

Finally I taught them the mantra of "BREAK YOUR FEAR AND LOVE YOURSELF" by which one should be able to break any fear and try out the task at hand. Also not to forget that one should appreciate and love oneself instead of depending on anyone else for moral support. Hitesh.G who is pursuing his BBM also shared about his journey and a wonderful message that "IF YOU ARE NOT A GOOD LEADER THEN BE A GREAT FOLLOWER" following which Bharath.G.C sir introduced the audience to various platforms by which they can grow and the response of the students was just stupendous. These students, especially girls had stayed back for 2 hours after college hours and mam had to struggle to make them leave the auditorium. I hope this suffices to prove the worth of the talk. If you want to know more about such talks, message me on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Congrats to BBMP and VVN College-Part V

Mohan.B.N, myself took upon the stage and was disappointed ot see a lethargic audience post lunch. So I kicked off with a power-packed start to make the crowd vibrant. Then I gave a presentation about IUnewspaperbag project about we were able to make 1,00,000 newspaperbags during the month of November in association with school children who were much younger to us. Thanks to Sireesha.M.k, online presence manager of Inspiration Unlimited who made a very beautiful powerpoint presentation for the session. Then I narrated a story about a crow and a sparrow in a village and conveyed the message about how small a contribution each one of us could make only if we didn't listen to what others teased us as. The crowd was filled with enthusiasm and the aura in the auditorium was trasnformed from a silent sobre one to a power-filled one. There was a tea break after my talk during which many students and teachers congratulated my energy-filled, powerpacked talk that just inspired all of them sitting in the room. I just thanked God and my mentor for all that had happened.

 

Once we returned from the tea break, Mr.Trilokachandra who is the additional commissioner of BBMP and an IAS officer spoke about Pegovian tax levied upon the polluter in foreign countries. He also told about the extended producer responsibility that is expected from companies which generate a lot of waste. For recycling aluminium people are ready to buy waste aluminium at a cost of Rs.60/kg but it becomes a waste if mixed with food. So he also advocated for a behavioural change in one crore people living in bangalore. He also claimed that Bangalore was the first city in entire India to make it compulsory to segregate the waste at the source itself. During this talk, he asked for feedback from students and the feedback session was really filled with enthusiasm due to the previous sessions.

Congrats to BBMP and VVN College-Part III

Then came the founder of hasirudala NGO, Smt.Nalini Shekar who explained about organic and inorganic waste. Any waste which can be converted to manure is an organic waste. She explained about how hair, dust belong to wet waste. She also informed about other types of wastes such as sanitary waste, hazardous waste in CFL bulbs, construction/debry waste. She also spoke about how waste pickers can separate plastic into 17-18 different varieties of wastes and paper into 6-7 grades based on their physical properties. In bangalore, today, waste sorters, scrap traders are managing 600-800 tonnes of waste and hence are helping to reduce an expense of Rs.13,00,000 per day. In Pune, waste pickers collect waste from 55 lakh homes and hence have invested in a scrap store and are earning Rs.35,000 to Rs.40,000 as divident per year.

 

Smt. Nalini also explained about how garden waste should be managed. She advocated that college should involve in waste management and make things happen for the society's good. After her talk there was lunch break for about 40 minutes during which lots of discussions went on among students and lecturers. Then when the afternoon session resumed, Smt.Shirley from JyothiNivas college informed about AURA - go green initiative of her college and Parivarthana started by Mr.Jayakrishna who is a social entrepreneur.

 

Then came on the stage Smt.Radha.V.Kale who has served in the industry of waste management for a lot of years with an experience of 40 years and who has been the director for the research and development department as well. Let's see what she had to say in the next blog.

Congrats to BBMP and VVN College-Part II

Nylon used in betwenn polythene and polypropylene for sacks of atta is also very difficult to recycle due to difference in melting points. Plastics of certain kinds can be used as alternate fuel resources and hence replace coal. Due to overuse, even the carbon in soil has reduced to a great extent. Hence the strong message was not to mix food with plastics.

 

Then came the Mayor, Sri VenkateshMurthy who exclaimed that plastic and hospital waste have reduced the value of garbage and this must be taught by students to the public. Mavalli, Mandoor and Dhoddaballapura which are dumping yards have become horrible spots today. Adding to this, Sri. Tallam Venkatesh sir spoke about how even small help from public can help solve the problem and advised that patriotism should be instilled in children at a very young age. This was followed by a tea break where in students and teachers from other colleges started interacting about the topics discussed in the morning. Post tea-break it was Dr.Meenakshi Bharath who took the stage with her humour-filled motivating speech. She advocated the usage of public transport.

 

Coming to the waste management, she called upon every person in the hall to become the leader of their respective street since each one of them had the ability to transform. She taught about how to form a team in the community and also informed that Bangalore generated 3.5 million kg of waste every single day. She gave a presentation about segregators, composters, carbon footprint, and home-grown-food items. She called upon the youth to be honest with their work.

Congrats to BBMP and VVN College-Part I

On 21st Jan,2013 close to 300 youth of bangalore witnessed a fantastic one-day workshop about waste segregation and management which was conducted by VVN Degree college and sponsored by BBMP(Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike). Smt. Prasanna Udupikar mam was the key convener of the entire event supported by the principal of VVN degree college, Smt. Namitha. Tallam Venkatesh sir, president of VVN Trust was also present during the inauguration of the event along with VenkateshMurthy, Mayor of Bangalore.

 

The event was inaugurated by a devotional song to Lord Vinayaka and lighting of the lamps by the dignitaries. Dr.Almitra Patel who is a member of Supreme Court of India for country's municipal waste management spoke about how the waste problem started in bangalore. Till 1960 there was no waste issue in bangalore because the waste was used up by farmers for their crops but with the subsidy given for urea and introduction of plastics stopped composting and made the waste useless. Black spots got created in different parts of the city as even rag-pickers couldn't separate plastic from food. She also mentioned the use of plastic if it can be recylced and reused. Tar roads need good shredded plastic so that they become 2-3 times better. PROBES/101/2005-2006 explains as to how to use plastics and PROBES/122/2008-2009 explains about differences of roads with and without plastics.

 

In one of the incidents in Tamilnadu, a school asked the children to bring one kilogram of plastic from their home in exchange for Rs.1 pencil. 1 tonne of plastic was collected in 10 days and a fantastic road was laid. Smt.Jayalalitha who was the then chief miniter ordered to lay thousands of kilometers of similar roads and it improved rural employment. Dr.Almitra Patel mam also informed about ghatta where recycled plastics chops are made into polystyrene, polypropylene and others in Nayandanahalli, Hosaballa.