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Thanks to city girl’s efforts, Amritsar airport gets eco-friendly toilet
The Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, has got a public toilet, which is the first of its kind in the country and is eco-friendly, thanks to the efforts of a city girl who ideated and gave shape to it.
The Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, has got a public toilet, which is the first of its kind in the country and is eco-friendly, thanks to the efforts of a city girl who ideated and gave shape to it.
Ruhani Verma, a Class 12 student of Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur, who hails from Amritsar, has built the community toilet with 100% recycled material.
“It is a project started by me keeping sustainability in mind. I aimed at building India’s first structure using environment-friendly bricks. Almost 30% of the brick is made of single-use plastic and 70% out of waste and silica dust. The Amritsar airport did not have toilets in the parking area and I thought it will be the best location for this sustainable toilet project,” she said.
“I would like to thank my school’s director Ayush Periwal, who has been my constant mentor, Shridhar Rao, architect, and co-founder of the SPB (silica plastic block) technology, who helped me since day one, and VK Seth, Amritsar airport director,” she said.
This is a call to the youth to promote “sustainability as the only way forward to build our environment”, said her mother Arushi Verma, a philanthropist.
During her journey with this project, Ruhani was able to save 4 lakh bags of single-use plastic and recycle them to make bricks. She said she collected these plastic bags by hiring a Gujarat-based firm. “If these plastic bags are lined up, they cover 150 km of distance. The idea of interlocking bricks, like Lego blocks, was used to bind the bricks together, as this structure used zero water or cement to build a carbon-negative building,” she added.
The project was inaugurated by Amritsar Member of Parliament (MP) Gurjit Singh Aujla and Amritsar airport director VK Seth on Saturday. “This initiative supports the Swachh Bharat Mission started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It supports cleanliness and recycling,” said Seth.
The silica plastic block is a sustainable and recyclable building material that is made of plastic waste and harmful foundry dust.
“The waste production, especially plastic waste, is an issue of concern. With the overwhelming bulk of plastic stuck out in landfills or incinerated (releasing toxic fumes), the problem becomes more challenging. India accounts for 10% of world production in the casting and forging industry in which silica/ foundry dust and residue from recycled waste from nearly 4.3 million metric tonnes of dumped plastic waste proving to be a great threat to our environment as well as society at large. Both industry and community have been contributors to this waste production process. Hence, we target the casting and forging industry which has been proven to be the most hazardous,” said Arushi.
