Rajkot: For the last three years, Dr Tejas Doshi in Bhavnagar has been receiving rather strange items in couriers - lakhs of used writing pens.
However, the pens that were destined for trash and added to environment pollution, have been refilled and put back to use by students in Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan too. A social media campaign he had initiated in 2018 flooded him with nearly five lakh pens, of which over 90% have been refilled and distributed to students. Dumped pens as they cause considerable damage to the land and water both.
While those made from plastic are non-biodegradable, the ink, lead and other chemicals percolate into the soil and underground water.
RAJKOT: Forty thousand and counting this is the haul of eco bricks that is literally paving the way for environ consciousness at the Akwada lake garden in Bhavnagar. And, what is even better is the fact that the process is a citizen initiative.
In a clever move by Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), these non-recyclable plastic waste bricks or eco bricks will take hundreds of years to get destroyed, and thus, will prevent pollution in land, water and air. The actual brain behind BMC’s innovation is Dr Tejas Doshi, a family physician by profession and brand ambassador of Bhavnagar in Swachh Bharat mission.