GUWAHATI, June 2 - In a bid to maintain ecological balance, the Akshar School for the underprivileged launched a solid waste recycling centre at Pamohi in the city recently.
Installation of the plant has been supported by ERD Foundation, Guwahati and it was inaugurated by Mahbubul Hoque, chairman of the Foundation. Dr Alaka Sarma, founder of Akshar Foundation and Parmita Nagen Sarma, co-founder and associate director of Akshar were present at the inaugural ceremony apart from school children and community people of the neighbouring area.
�Akshar Foundation is sensitive to the imbalances in the ecology. In this part of India, burning trash is a kind of established practice. Even in higher middleclass, educated neighbourhoods, one comes across the dry trash being burnt, along with leaves and twigs. Even plastic cups and polythene bags are put to flame. The result is devastating. In our own city of Guwahati, we cannot see the blue sky due to haze. The smoke so generated is harmful to the human body too. Its effect is like smoking 40 cigarettes a day, without taking a single puff,� said Hoque.
Dr Sarma in her speech said that the community with which Akshar works had the habit of burning trash. �Our students being concerned about the environment, are deeply disturbed and as a result, we have come up with the plan of recycling the plastic waste generated by the community. The biodegradable waste can be disposed of by the families in their own area,� she said.
Akshar Foundation is a Guwahati-based registered public charitable trust engaged in poverty eradication through operation of schools that supplement formal education with vocational training, business incubation and community development.
Earlier, Akshar had signed an MoU with ERDF where the latter had promised to support Akshar to launch its recycling centre, which would consist of a collection service for dry waste in the communities served by Akshar School, as well as a low-tech processing facility on the campus of Akshar School for sorting and reusing solid waste.
