Recycle and reuse

In the run-up to its third edition to be held on June 5, Oman Green Awards has teamed up with Oman Marketing & Services Co, to distribute recycle bins for collecting used papers at various schools in Muscat

Oman Green Award (OGA), Oman’s first environmental award to honour outstanding environmental vision, endeavours and achievements of corporates and individuals, has launched an initiative for paper recycling at various schools in Muscat in association with Oman Marketing & Services Co (Omasco). As a build-up to the third edition of OGA and in line with OGA’s plans to inculcate awareness about conservation and recycling in the society, the initiative is aimed at making students and teachers more conscious about the importance of recycling and reusing papers. As the first step of the initiative, around 30 recycle bins were placed at four leading schools in the city to collect used papers from the school premises and send them for recycling. The OGA team visited Indian School Muscat, British School Muscat, Indian School Al Ghubra and ABA-An IB World School to hand over the recycle bins which were received by the principals of the schools along with the environment/eco club coordinators and students.

They were all praise for the various initiatives by OGA to spread the message of conservation and sustainability in Omani society, and especially its attempt to reach out to the students to make them work as the agents of environmental change and contribute their shared vision for a better future.

Congratulating the OGA initiative, Kai Vacher, principal of British School Muscat, said it would help generate more awareness among the students about recycling and reusing. “We are as a school very much committed to recycling. Sustainability is integrated in the curriculum of all students form both primary and senior schools. There are active environmental teams such as green team, recycling team and eco warriors. The children are involved in community environmental initiatives such as beach clean-ups, have links with organisations outside of school like Oman Botanic Gardens, ECOMAN and ESO and all classes currently recycle paper and plastic containers.”

Achuthan Madhav, principal of Indian School Muscat, said the recycle bin presented by OGA will add value to various green initiatives undertaken by the Eco and Health Club in the school. Lalitha Mallya, coordinator of Eco and Health Club, adds, “The activities of the health and environment club can be summed up in its three main objectives: clean school; green school and healthy school. By clean school we mean the cleanliness of the child, class room, corridor and the whole surroundings; we developed the concept of green school to set up gardens for school as well as for each class room. In addition, as part of our healthy school initiative, we make the students bring only Salads once in a week.”
 

Papri Ghosh, principal of Indian School Al Ghubrah, praised the OGA initiative to spread awareness among students about recycling. “Our school accords more importance to making the student environmentally conscious. The younger minds can produce fresh and genuine ideas to make conservation more effective,” she avers. Explaining the various activities undertaken by the environment club of the school, its coordinator Maleka Ariwala adds, “The motto of our environment club is to recycle, reuse and rethink. From this year onwards we stopped giving plastic bags while selling the books and we asked the students not to cover their textbooks and notebooks with plastic bags. As teachers we all make the students believe that we have not inherited the nature from our forefathers; but we have borrowed it from our forefathers.”

ABA-An IB World School which received 15 bins has a total of 14 recycling facilities on its premises, each with specific bins for paper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, batteries etc. “We have been involved in recycling for many years now and will continue to do that in the future,” says Terry Storer, principal of the school. The school also has an environmental club.

Into the third edition
Oman Green Awards is the ultimate recognition for companies, institutions and individuals in Oman, who demonstrate a commitment towards responsible consumption and sustainable growth. The award honours and celebrates their vision in leading the way to a cleaner, greener tomorrow. The last two editions of the OGA were a resounding success in meeting its stated objectives. The OGA has invited entries for the third edition of the awards which will be announced on June 5, 2012. It is a unique opportunity to be part of a national platform to honour and appreciate outstanding environmental vision, endeavors, initiatives and achievements in the country. The nomination form must be completed and submitted online at www.omangreenawards.com.
 

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