Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis said on Thursday that the district administration would popularise the “Green Protocols” adopted by the Zilla Panchayat to create awareness about reducing plastic waste and garbage in the schools of the district.

She was speaking after inaugurating an awareness campaign for students on garbage disposal and Green Protocols at the Nittur High School, here.

Ms. Francis said students were the best persons to spread awareness on reducing the use of plastic. She said that if only the generation of garbage, was reduced then the question of its management would not pose that much of a problem. “The higher the generation of garbage, the bigger the challenge of its scientific disposal,” she said.

People should not only stop using plastic cups and plates but also paper cups and plates. Even paper cups would be used and thrown. Instead, steel cups and plates should be used.

“The Nittur School is a model in reducing the use of plastic. The children of other schools would be told to visit this school and study its model,” Ms. Francis said.

Murali Kadekar, headmaster, Nittur High School, said that the school students were discouraged from bringing water bags. Instead, the school itself was providing clean and pure drinking water.

The students of the school cleaned the plastic and other waste by the roadside once a week from Tangada Gadi to Shyam’s Circle. They also collected the plastic waste in their house once a week and brought it to the school so that it could be given to the municipal van which came for collecting the waste.

The management of the Nittur High School had provided LPG stoves with cylinders to the houses of 14 students free of cost so that they reduced their dependence on firewood and kerosene. The houses of four students were provided with solar lamps. Both these schemes were implemented with the help of donors, Mr. Kadekar said.

Srinivas Rao, Chief Planning Officer of Zilla Panchayat, K. Suresh Shenoy, Zonal Coordinator – Literacy, Rotary Club, and Ramachandra Upadhyaya, President of Rotary Club, were present.