Service session

Due to COVID, I couldn’t do service last week. But this week, after recovering, I was able to participate in Recycling & Sustainability (RnS) and contribute in various ways in the service. In today’s recycling our agenda was to basically organize ourselves for this new school year, manage our goals and what we need to do, and then make sure that the biogas plant is working well.

Step 0 – I started off the service, by helping others in making recycling boxes. Since, I also did this a lot last year, I was easily able to help the newcomers and teach them the exact technique that goes in creating these recycling boxes.

Step 1 – Then, it was a series of trips back and forth to the recycling room. Initially, I delivered the extra bit of cardboard there, and then also to investigate further what others (Philip and Dasha) were doing there.

Step 2 – After that, our service group together went to watch the food waste bucket installed at the canteen. The bucket was suspended by a balance, which showed the weight of the food waste produced. In a way, I was quite fascinated by the use of measuring the food waste. It would allow us to assess how much food waste we produced, and also aid in providing info what we as a recycling and sustainability group need to do in the future to create awareness about responsible waste production in the school.

Step 3 – Finally, last but not the least, we took the food waste and dumped it into the biogas cannister. From there, overtime, the waste would be converted to methane. We, and the eco schools service group, devoured on the popcorn we made from the methane gas in the chamber stored from before. We also had the company of Thisath (top g) and Aayush, from Gecko Network, who recorded our activity and actions around the gas chamber.

Step final – I dumped some extra cow dung, along with the food waste, into the cannister if the biogas chamber. The cow dung provides that extra fuel to the biogas chamber. At the end, I also turned off the flame (we used to cook popcorn from biogas). It smelt very funny, almost like the gas chamber farted.

Overall, my first service session was good, and I hope to work in this service and make our community more sustainable and responsible in their waste management. I would argue that the service was more of an activity session for me, credits to the trio back and forth to the recycling room, but let that count towards my efforts in saving mother nature.