Poster expo highlights ‘best of waste’ skills

SALALAH, NOV 20 - Students from schools, colleges and technical institutions came out with innovative ideas to protect the environment by making the best use of waste materials at the ‘Third Annual Environment Week Poster Presentation’ held at Dhofar University. There were 11 participants from different schools and colleges in which ‘out of the box’ thinking was apparent in the projects that mostly highlighted reducing carbon emission by reusing waste materials and limiting dependance on artificial cooling and heating systems as much as possible. Ashgan Mohammed and Noor Mohammed of the Foundation Programme of Dhofar University derived an idea on single use plastic bottles, which can be used as bricks to construct a house. “A ‘plastic mud house’ that can be eco-friendly, less expensive and an efficient way to reduce the dangers of plastic waste.” They derived their idea from a global data which suggested annual use of 60 million plastic bottles and approximately 500 billion single use of plastic every year. “Our idea is to construct plastic mud houses by reusing and recycling these plastic bottles and bags so that the burden of waste can be reduced and they can be a cheap solution for good living,” said the project presenters Ashgan and Noor. Similarly, the students of Indian School Salalah presented ‘Mirage’ and ‘Green Nest’ that drew attention from the visitors for their original ideas and solutions to reuse the waste materials. Apart from ‘Plastic mud house’, there were four more entries from Dhofar University. Other participants were from Asadiya School, Salalah High School and Oman College of Health Sciences. Dr Sayed Ahsan Jamil, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Dhofar University, appreciated the poster exhibition as an effort to “sensitise the current generation about the environmental issues and take some concrete steps to secure their future. It is very much the need of the hour.” Dr Samir Hammami, Chairperson of the Center for Entrepreneurship and acting director of Community Service and Continuing Education Centre, said the event was in line with the Oman’s National Day and Omani Tree Day. “We need to inculcate among the young generation the value of environment and ways to protect it. This is an attempt also to increase awareness among the community about recycling of things which can help in serving the environment in a better way,” he said.