Upcycling for Sustainability a first hand experience

On Monday, 17 February 2020, students of classes 4 and 5 attended a Waste Walk at , “ Swechha”, a Delhi based, youth-led youth-run organisation dedicated to help people to ‘Be the Change’ to save the environment.

Over the last 10 years, the organisation has planted more than 10,000 native trees, herbs and shrubs. It aims to inspire, create and support – a just, equitable and sustainable society, for everyone and forever. ‘Green the Map’ is the fair trade arm of Swechha. The organisation is located in Khirki Village in Malviya Nagar and is housed in a three-storey building with a ‘Remakery’ on the ground floor.

The first floor houses an office and the second floor is a terrace- workplace, with a hut of bamboo and seats made of used car parts! It also has a garden with the plants in bottles, upcycled refrigerators etc! Green the Map is one of the leading fair trade, sustainable, upcycling and vegan brands created by Swechha. Their products are crafted by the strong and resilient hands of rural and urban India, both women and men. Their products swear by their design and quality, utility being the brand’s core value.

In the Green The Map project, the organisation uses waste fabric to craft beautiful products. The students were surprised to see innovative things like clutch bags made of tetra packs, notebook and diary covers made of leather and tyre tubes , paper made of elephant poop, shirts of cork, wallets from seat belts, wall hangings of wine bottles and graters, a broken door transformed into a shelf etc. Each was more amazing than the last!

The resource person at the centre conducted a session on how to segregate waste highlighting the recent environment crisis. She emphasised how we can bring about a big change by doing small things and following the motto – “Barter, Buy and Sell”.

The session motivated the students to upcycle waste for something useful. The session got over after the group played an interesting game of Dumb charades which reinforced what was learnt during the session.

For more pictures...click here