NGO Uses Diwali Thrash To Plant Saplings
Usually after Diwali streets are full of cracker waste which is not recycled. Communitree, a Chennai based NGO collects waste parts of crackers to plant saplings.
Usually after Diwali streets are full of cracker waste including wrappers of sweet boxes and rocket cases This huge amount of trash generated after the festival is not even recycled. Communitree, a Chennai based NGO is working hard to encourage recycling this cracker waste. They collect waste parts of crackers such as outer shells of rockets, big flower pots, and cylindrical bombs that are more than five to six inches in size to plant saplings.
The founder of Communitree, Hafiz Khan said that they cannot go from house to house asking everyone to stop bursting crackers. It is about individual choices. But they have appealed citizens to be responsible towards the environment and that they have reached out to people to ask for firecracker waste so that it could be utilized to plant saplings.
One can hand over the cases and leave them and it is not mandatory to take the planted saplings back home. All the plants are grown in the NGO’s nursery which is located on the outskirts of Chennai and later when the saplings grow up to five feet, they could be planted in different places.
Hafiz said that the cases made of strong cardboard are excellent to grow saplings. The cardboard retains the moisture content when water is poured, and it is easy to maintain. After the seed germinates, one can directly plant it in the soil. The saplings consist of different varieties including neem, jackfruit, guava, gooseberry and others.
Till date, the NGO has collected up to 50,000 cases. Last year, they had collected 27,000 firecracker cases, their next aim is to collect 80,000 cases.
Correction in Voice over: Last year, Communitree collected 27,000 firecracker cases and not 20,000
