Tetra paks punched to make school benches for poor

From now on, think twice before throwing away your juice pack. If you recycle it instead, it could help in a child’s education.
Several city schools and retail shops are joining a unique initiative where tetra paks are recycled to make benches, diaries, notebooks and tissues. These are donated to civic schools to help in the education of poor children.

The initiative is called Go Green. It is by the NGO Are You Recycling (RUR) in partnership with a private company Tetra Pak. As part of the initiative, Sahakari Bhandar, a chain of retail shops, has placed bins or public drop boxes outside 19 of its 22 stores. All one has to do is flatten the tetra pak and clean it before dropping it in these bins, which have also been placed in several city schools.

So far, 23 benches and stationery paraphernalia has been donated to Swadeshi Marathi Shala, a government school in Chunabhatti, thanks to the initiative.

Monisha Narke, founder of RUR, says that for every 4,500 tetra paks, one bench is donated. “Condition of students in civic schools is very bad. Many times, children are forced to sit on the floor. The Sahakari Bhandar identified Swadeshi Marathi Shala, and now the students there have benches to sit on. We are going to make more such benches,” she said.

The tetra paks collected in the recycling bin are taken to a mill in Vapi. There, they are recycled to form sheets of 10mm thickness. These are moulded into benches which are sturdy as well as water resistant. “Benches from such sheets require very low maintenance. Unlike wooden benches, they do not need to be polished. They have a long life,” she added.

“Every household has such paks that they just throw away every day. These end up either in a land fill or get taken by a kabaadiwaala and are recycled partially. Our initiative guarantees 100% recycling.”