The Diana Prize was established in 1999 in memory of the Princess of Wales to recognize the efforts of young people aged 9-25 for their social work or humanitarian endeavours. This year, the award ceremony was held virtually on June 28. Four hundred young changemakers from around the world were sensitized, including many students from India.
Aditya shares some tips to make his lifestyle more eco-friendly. He said, “It is not difficult to lead a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle by following ‘Refuge If You Can Not Reuse’. All you need to do is adjust your consumption habits, many of which are just a matter of changing.” Takes a minute. For example, refuse all. Single-use plastic when eating out – such as plastic straws, cutlery, stirrers, cups, etc. If you can’t drink without a straw, a metal/ Buy bamboo straw and take it with you. Always carry with you when you are going out. Make your own steel/copper/glass bottle and refill it on the way. Refuse water in plastic bottles As most people have begun to do in recent years – refuse plastic bags and take a cloth bag for shopping or bring extra books back from school. Refuse plastic toothbrushes and bamboo toothbrushes Switch to. Switch to glass or metal bottles for water storage at home. Refuse plastic containers, and switch to food storage at home. Switch to steel or glass containers. Also, instead of throwing away the plastic waste daily, people can keep the carton at home and call the recycling agency to pick it up once a month. By doing this small act, they will ensure responsible recycling and we should all do our part in ensuring that less waste goes to landfills and oceans.”
Aditya has received this award for his efforts to reduce single-use plastic through the ‘Refuge If You Can Not Reuse’ campaign and other initiatives.
Aditya completed the UN Plastic Tide Turner Challenge last year, and ran a waste segregation awareness program by sharing tips over email and WhatsApp with members of the society. He says, “I caught zoom Sessions to explain waste segregation. As environment secretary in my school, in July 2020, I started a similar campaign with the support of my school administration, informing students about the harms of single-use plastics and microplastics from class 6 onwards , while they were encouraged to impress. To ban others from single use plastic. More than 50 students joined the campaign to influence a certain minimum number of people, and the campaign was able to persuade over 2000 others to give up three single-use plastic items per person.”
Another major project he took up during the lockdown was the safe disposal of bio-medical waste. “During this pandemic we all have understood the importance of segregation of waste. I contacted people and explained to them the pitfalls of improper waste management of bio-medical waste. An initiative by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) Volunteered for. Organization I AM Gurgaon to distribute yellow waste bags in which bio-medical waste can be disposed of safely. Under the scheme, these yellow bags can be easily bio-deposited by the waste collection agency. Can be identified as medical waste; thus, avoiding human contact with waste. I approached condominiums in DLF Phase-5 with this initiative, and RWAs in Gurgaon were to come and agree to be part of it The scheme is still running successfully.”
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