Reduce, reuse and recycle: Mumbai B-schoolers lead the way

he participants are expected to develop ideas which can be adopted and implemented by 6.5 lakh students enrolled in colleges affiliated to the university

From reusing components of old engineering projects to recycling waste generated in college canteens, management students across the city are coming up with a number of solutions for environmental problems.

MUNIJAN participants at MU convocation hall. (HT Photo)

The ideas were presented at MUNIJAN, an annual competition held by the University of Mumbai (MU) on October 2 - Gandhi Jayanti. The competition requires participants to develop workable ideas under a common theme. This year, the topic of the competition was ‘Environment Conversation: Mother Earth is what we all have in common’.

Students from management colleges across the city participated in the competition, of which six teams were shortlisted for a presentation at the university’s convocation hall.

The participants are expected to develop ideas which can be adopted and implemented by 6.5 lakh students enrolled in colleges affiliated to the university. “MUNIJAN is based on Gandhian philosophy of self-reliance. The ideas should be such that the students themselves can implement them with their limited resources,” said Vaibhav Tripathi, a participant from Welingkar Institute of Management and Research, Matunga.

Tripathi and his team came up with an idea of converting the organic waste generated from college canteen into compost and selling it to farmers. The students proposed connecting five markets in the city where farmers sell bring their produce were connected with five colleges each. They estimated that these colleges can process 7000 kg of waste every 2 months.

Similarly, a team of students from Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research, suggested that the old engineering projects of students lying idle in colleges can be dismantled, and their components can be reused by current students for their own projects.

“I came up with this idea while studying engineering in a city college. I observed that the projects developed by our seniors were dumped in our laboratory. With the permission of college, we dissembled them and procured around 300 components,” said Tanmay Chandak, who is now an MBA student at Sydenham.

A group of students from Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute of Financial and Management Studies developed a plan is to collect the old clothes from students of MU affiliated colleges and encourage them for clothes. Depending on their condition, these clothes could either be distributed among the needy or converted to cloth bags.

“Most of the students avoid reusing and recycling objects after using them. Through the activity proposed by us, the students will get to know the hurdles in the way of conserving environment,” said Ankur Pati, one of the participants from the institute.