By Aalhya Adhikari & Hriddhima Agarwal
March 18th, which is the Global Recycling Day, was established in 2018 by the Global Recycling Foundation because it is an important part of reducing CO2 emission, securing the planet for the future, and protecting natural resources. On this occasion, the students of Premier International IB World School attended a Professional Pathway program with the theme: E-waste. This program was organized by the SAC (Student Activity Council) members of the school and the program was conducted on the 5th floor of the school’s main building. It was scheduled for 2 PM to 3 PM on the said day, and the guest speakers present at the event were Dr. Jyoti Giri, Mr. Pankaj Panjiyar, Mr. Uttam Kafle, and Er. Samip Sigdel.
The guest speakers started by introducing themselves and telling the students about their professions. Dr. Jyoti Giri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tri Chandra Campus. She entered the field of researching e-waste nearly 6 years ago and has made a lot of discoveries although she faced a lot of challenges during this period. Mr. Pankaj Panjiyar is the co-founder of Doko Recyclers, which is a company that recycles waste and utilizes different resources to handle e-waste. Mr. Uttam Kafle is the co-founder of Sabko phone which specializes in recycling old phones and Er. Samip Sigdel is the co-founder of Green Decision Labs and Research Pvt. Ltd. and has also been efficiently working on different policies related to e-waste. After the brief introductions, the guests gave speeches about their professions and the journey that led them to where they are. The speech encouraged the students to learn more about e-waste, gave them inspiring ideas about how e-waste provided a very good career opportunity and is a field that is untouched and could provide great scope to them. After the fruitful session of listening to their inspiring stories, the moderators and audience asked their questions based on the topic and issues discussed. One of the questions asked was “How can we encourage our community to get rid of e-waste without creating a dump?” in which the guest speaker replied that people should segregate the wastes, follow the 7 r process which are; rethink, refuse, reduce, repurpose, reuse, recycle and rot to properly manage the e-waste.
In the end, the guests were asked to say a few words to end the program. The most insightful quote by Mr. Kafle is, “Find and do what makes you happy. Don’t chase a problem for your whole life, but solve many problems along the way of life.” These words were motivating to the students. The guests were then honored with a token of love and certificates of appreciation by the School Principal Mr. Niladri Shekhar Parial.
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