NGO uses trash to plant valuable saplings | Fusion - WeRIndia

People exchange sweets on the occasion of Diwali. Besides, bursting firecrackers is common in many places across the country. As a result, streets are full of waste generated from firecrackers and empty sweet boxes, wrappers and rocket cases after Diwali.

Nobody thinks about where the trash goes and how difficult it would be to clean the roads. While most of the trash ends up in piling as heaps at dumping yard, few gets clog drains and a very little amount of trash gets recycled.

To encourage recycling waste generated from firecrackers, a Chennai-based NGO, Communitree is collecting outer shells of rockets and bombs, and cardboard boxes to reuse to plant saplings.

The NGO urged people to hand over the outer shells to them to plant saplings. The founder of the NGO, Hafiz Khan says that waste is really wasted if it does not have a purpose. It is difficult to stop bursting firecrackers due to individual preferences. However, one can be responsible for the trash generated after that by joining in their initiative.

So far, Communitree collected more than 50,000 cases. Last year, the NGO collected around 27,000 cases and this year they aim to collect over 80,000 cases.

Anyone can handover the empty boxes or cases to the NGO and take the planted sapling to their home. Or they can leave the boxes with the NGO. The cardboard cases can retain moisture for the growth of saplings. However, the plant needs soil after the germination of the seed.

Before planting the saplings, the cardboard boxes are washed with cow dung. Different types of saplings like neem, beech, jackfruit, guava, ashoka and amla are grown by the NGO.

Plants are grown in the nursery for a few months. After that, they will be planted in different places across the city. The plant saplings can grow around five feet.

Image from Pxfuel (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Reference: https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-epjzm