Chennai: The sight of students engaged in plogging at Madras Medical College (MMC) and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) is not a common sight.
Well, if you’re wondering what ‘plogging’ means, it is just the exercise of picking up litter while jogging. But what is more interesting is how they utilise the collected garbage.
On entering the MMC, the visitors are cordially greeted by flowering plants right at the entrance. In a move to re-use the plastic bottle waste generated in RGGGH and MMC, the Eco Club of the college has been utilising them for setting up a vertical garden on the campuses.
“We pledged to manage the plastic waste on World Environment Day which coincided with the UN’s theme and planned to have a vertical garden on our hospital premises first,” said MMC and RGGGH Dean, Dr R Jayanthi.
The plastic bottles containing plants are supported by bamboo poles which occupy minimal space and need less workforce to manage.
Headed by Vinisha Rajan, a final-year MBBS student, the club has been passionately involved in enhancing the aesthetics of the campus.
“Following the project in RGGGH, we beautified MMC with vertical garden on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary,” said Vinisha Rajan.
Every alternate day, the volunteers of the club jog around the campuses to clean the garbage and maintain the plants.
Explaining about garden care, Ramamoorthy, a fourth-year student and one of the coordinators, said, “Two of us ensure the watering is done whenever it is required.”
The team plans to expand the garden once they get enough manpower to carry out activities. Following the success in MMC, Kilpauk Medical College (KMC) joins the league of vertical garden champions.
To begin the project on a large scale and make the campus greener, the students and faculty members of KMC established a pilot garden last week.
“We want to know if it would be sustainable and durable and have received positive feedback for the one set up near the Dean’s office. The compound wall of the college has been chosen as the next spot and the team is working towards it,” said KMC Dean, Dr Vasanthamani P.
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WANT NOT, WASTE NOT |
| Explaining about the amount of waste generated on the premises, MMC and RGGGH Dean, Dr R Jayanthi, said, “Since the announcement of plastic ban in the State, we are actively engaged in reducing the usage of plastic on our campuses. We have begun to use stainless steel vessels during our meetings and are encouraging patients to bring their own vessels.” “However, plastic usage in medicine package is being permitted as we do not have an alternative,” she added. “The biomedical waste is disposed as per norms and the next in the pipeline is to manage solid waste effectively. The students’ clubs are passionate to initiate a lot of projects,” stated MMC Assistant Professor, Dr Sudharshini. |
