Students of Canossa Schools turn their used Tetra Pak cartons into garden benches

67000 cartons collected, and turned into 8 garden benches

"We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy" - Albus Dumbledore.

Mumbai: 07, June, 2019: Students of the Canossa Schools in Mahim and Andheri are no wizards and possess no magic wands, but what they do have is the will to do the right thing. They have made the right choice towards building a better future through some real action and positive behavioral change. In 2016, Canossa Schools joined the ‘Go Green with Tetra Pak’ program, an initiative led by Tetra Pak. The 10-year-old program works towards promoting recycling of used Tetra Pak packages into useful items like garden benches, school desks and more. A very important catalyst in this movement is school children who have committed themselves to recycling and contributing towards creating a cleaner and greener environment.

The two-year partnership between Canossa Schools and ‘Go Green with Tetra Pak’, successfully running in its third year, has delivered incredible results. Students from three Canossa Schools (Canossa High School- Mahim, Canossa Primary School -Mahim & Canossa High School- Andheri) committed to give back to the environment by ensuring not a single used carton is discarded in an irresponsible manner. Under the partnership, these schools have also been set up as deposit centres for students, teachers and other volunteers to drop off their used cartons for recycling. Over the span of two years, the students collected more than 67,000 used cartons, and have earned themselves 8 garden benches in the process, donated to the schools as a token of thanks and appreciation for their hard work and commitment.

“It's so nice to see the kids being so involved in green activities. They not only are contributing to the environment but are also understanding the importance of safe and effective recycling. The program of bringing back the products made after recycling is so encouraging for the students," commented Sr. Nataline Lobo, Principal, Canossa Primary School, Mahim.

We don't need magical powers to protect the natural resources. We only need to develop the right behavior. Adopting environment-friendly practices and raising awareness about managing waste responsibly can bring an impactful change. 

With the objective of recycling every used carton into useful products and creating a better learning environment for the lesser privileged children, Tetra Pak India initiated the 'Go Green' program in 2010, designed and facilitated by RUR Greenlife (a social environment enterprise) and supported by Reliance Retail (Sahakari Bhandar and Reliance Fresh) in Mumbai to encourage and mobilise Mumbaikars through various on-ground and digital activities to effectively recycle their used cartons.

Tetra Pak cartons are paper-based and every part of them is recyclable. Each time the cartons are deposited at a deposit centre, they arecollected, compacted and sent to a recycler. The cartons are shredded into smaller pieces which are then converted into composite sheets. These recycled composite sheets are used to make classroom desks, garden benches, pen stands, exam pads, and other interesting products.

Since its successful launch in 2010, the 'Go Green' program has resulted in the collection of over 3,200,000 used Tetra Pak cartons, which have been recycled into 260 school desks for the lesser privileged schools, 100 community garden benches, over 50,000 notebooks and many more utility products.