USJ Centre for Sustainability, Piramal Glass Ceylon launch waste glass collection drive
Thursday, 25 December 2014 00:30
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The Centre for Sustainability (CFS) of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ) together with one of their program sponsors from the commercial sector, Piramal Glass Ceylon Plc launched a campaign to streamline the waste glass collection mechanism in the university. Under this project Piramal Glass Ceylon Plc will be collecting all glass waste disposed from the university for recycling purposes.
This is another successful initiative under the ‘Be the Change’ campaign that was launched by the CFS a few months back, which is aimed at raising community awareness on responsible waste disposal and the importance of using environmental friendly packaging material with a focus of making Sri Lanka a ‘Greener and Cleaner’ place for the future.
Discussing about this initiative Prof. Nilanthi Bandara, Head, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science of USJ said, “This is an extension of the public awareness program we launched a few weeks ago under the theme ‘Be the Change.’ Today we are pledging our own efforts towards this campaign by introducing a method to streamline the collection of waste glass in our own university. Through this we project we are pioneering the change we like to see in our society.”
According to Dr. Priyan Perera, Coordinating Director of CFS & Senior Lecturer, universities are places where a huge amount of solid waste is generated due to the large scale human activities. Considerable amounts of glass are disposed through functions in laboratories, canteens, hostels etc. on a regular basis. “By this partnership, we are making an effort to educate the students to responsibly dispose garbage and enlisting the support of the only glass manufacturer in Sri Lanka to collect glass waste for recycling purposes. Based on the success of this pilot program, we are planning to extend this project to other universities in Sri Lanka as well,” Dr. Perera said.
Under this initiative, glass collection bins will be placed in key locations in the university premises where it will be convenient for the academics, students and other occupants to dispose glass waste expediently. The CFS will also conduct an internal awareness program among the occupants of the university to gain their support for this initiative. It has been arranged with Piramal Glass Ceylon Plc to collect glass waste on a fortnightly basis.
Discussing their assistance towards this program, Piramal Glass Ceylon Plc Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Tiwari said, “We have 21 waste glass collection locations island wide and this will be the newest addition to our system. We readily partnered with USJ as we saw a strategic fit between this program and our business/manufacturing systems, which are based on environmental friendly practices. We are planning to partner with the CFS for a few more practical, focused and value adding initiatives of similar nature in the future too which will help drive awareness and action among various communities in making Sri Lanka a cleaner place.”
