Ashkar foundation’s plastic-for-schooling program expands to five schools in India

17 / 04 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

The plastic-for-schooling program – which was started by the Akshar Foundation and now working with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) – will expand to five schools of the Assam government in India.

The “Akshar Education Model” will serve as a pilot for state-wide implementation. “The government has authorized us to implement our plastic school fees policy in these schools, making submission of household plastic mandatory, as well as launching plastic recycling centers in each school,” Mukhtar says.

Along with providing children with an education, the Akshar Education Model converts the plastic from parents into bricks, promoting recycling and combating pollution.

The UNEP works with foundations such as Akshar through its Tide Turners Plastic Challenge. The global initiative educates young people about the ecological toll of single-use plastic and rewards those who help clean up waste. Participants can work through different levels of the program, getting badges and certificates for their work and ultimately becoming community leaders.

“When we found out about Tide Turners, after being contacted by UNEP, we thought it was a perfect way for our students to join a global effort,” says Mazin Mukhtar, founder of the Akshar Foundation.

“We also love that students would get a certificate from UNEP recognizing their hard work that could help them when they apply for colleges.”

“It is important to involve young people in the efforts to beat plastic pollution,” said Joyce Msuya, UNEP’s Deputy Executive Director.

“Tide Turners helps empower the youth to understand and address the problem while encouraging them to become leaders in their communities.”

Tide Turners works on curbing global plastic problem:

Humanity produces 300 million tons of plastic waste each year, of which about 8 million tons ends up in the ocean. In the last 50 years, plastic production has increased more than 22 times. Yet in 2015, only an estimated 9 per cent of plastics were recycled. Tide Turners is helping curb this growing tide.

Globally, Tide Turners has reached over 360,000 youth in 28 countries, including 92,000 young people in India.

“We’ve been inundated with requests to join the Tide Turners challenge by individuals, schools, clubs and plastic pollution campaigns,” says Gayatri Raghwa, UNEP’s campaign coordinator in India.

Tide Turners is one of several UNEP initiatives designed to get youth involved in addressing the world’s environmental problems. Other initiatives include The Global Youth Environment Assembly, Geo-6 for Youth Report, the Youth 4 Climate event ahead of COP26 and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.