Children and youth of Jharkhand's Ranchi collected over 4.5kg of plastic waste to create a plastic art sculpture and get it installed at Muri, 60km away from the state capital, on World Environment Day.

The drive was organised by NGO SwitchON Foundation, having operations in several states of the country, which teamed up with implementing partners in Ranchi such as Hindalco Industries, and Vivekananda Yuva Samity to participate in the #BeatPlasticPollution campaign and collected plastic trash, which if not collected would have ended up in landfills.

“Members collected used plastic bottles, polythene, single-use plastic like straws, chips and biscuit packets from their surrounding vicinity and used those wastes to create art sculptures and we got it installed at Alumina Club in Hindalco Industries Ltd at Muri and it was inaugurated on Monday by the Ranchi unit head of Hindalco Industries, Ravi Narayan Mishra,” said Vivek Gupta from the SwitchON Foundation.

“Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing issues of the environment that is adversely affecting humans, wildlife and its habitats. SwitchON is committed to work towards creating a sense of awareness among children and youth to reduce and reuse plastic waste and come up with solutions to beat plastic pollution. This Environment Day, let’s unite against plastic,” said Vinay Jaju, managing director of SwitchON Foundation.

Speaking at the event, Ravi Narayan Mishra said: “It is encouraging to witness such an initiative by SwitchON Foundation and its partners to create awareness among children and youth about how waste plastic can be used in a constructive way.”

The foundation had earlier this year released a study on the "state of air quality in Jharkhand" which revealed that the concentration of PM2.5 (particulate matter that are 2.5 micrometres and smaller in diameter) in the state is more than 2.5 times the national standard.