2019-07-28

Reflecting on the Kageshwori Manohara Clean Up Campaign

A clean up campaign is an organized cleaning effort made by a group of like-minded individuals to clean a predesignated area. Clean up campaigns are gaining momentum not just as means to clean up a community but to understand a community’s waste composition and consumption patterns for improvement. The Kageshwori Manohara Clean Up Campaign was organized by the Kageshwori Manohara Municipality and was initiated by Himalayan Heroes, an independent student led environmental student group consisting of 12 members. Doko Recyclers acted as a sustainability partner before and during the clean up campaign where we taught Himalayan Heroes how to recycle and segregate waste properly and guided them on how to run a successful clean up. In the case of the Kageshwori Manohara Clean Up campaign, the designated areas were schools ranging from Ward 1 to Ward 9 where schools students from the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades were mobilized to clean their school surroundings on World Environment Day (June 05, 2019). The participating students were taught to separate the recyclable waste collected from non-recyclable waste so any recyclable waste collected during the event would be sent to be recycled by Doko Recyclers. 27 schools participated in the Clean Up Campaign with a total of 3,000 students cleaning their school premises for two hours. Our student partner group Himalayan Heroes trained the 3,000 students on how to segregate waste and collect recyclables before the campaign. Students were given differently colored sacks to separate landfill waste from recyclable waste. At the end of the day, students collected 417 kilograms of recyclable waste. This is by no means a small amount. Imagine how much more resources we would save if these children recycle and segregate their waste for the rest of their lives! This is why this Clean Up Campaign was important. It taught students that managing waste properly is not a burden but our responsibility towards the environment and towards humanity’s future.