Ahmedabad, August 17, 2023: The Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) has extended its support to WAY Everything Connects Foundation – an Ahmedabad-based organization for its initiative – Mission PenPals. The initiative aims to raise awareness and sensitize people across the globe to avoid using single-use plastic pens – a major source of plastic waste that has limited recycling and reusing alternatives. Both the organizations have collaborated on the cause.
As part of the initiative, the Ahmedabad chapter of PRSI, organized a session on ‘Waste of Billions of Plastic Pens and what can be done about it!’ at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Members and office bearers from across 26 chapters of PRSI participated in the event – physically and virtually.As part of the campaign, all the participants digitally pledged not to use single-use plastic pens.
During the session, Ms Wricha Johari and Mr Prakshal Mehta, the co-founders of WAY Everything Connects Foundation spoke at length about the alarming waste generated by single-use plastic pens. According to their research, at least 60 billion pens are used and thrown away every year across the globe. Since each such pen contains several materials including metal, ink and at least three different grades of plastic, it is often difficult to recycle it. In absence of a policy in place, the discarded pens often end up in landfills, oceans or incinerators.
Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Mehta said, “Single use plastic pens are widely used by literate people, who are well-aware of the consequences of plastic pollution. However, the waste generated by single-used pens is not just neglected but unaccounted for. However, the collective impact is huge. On an average 60 billion pens are discarded across the globe every year and most of them are never recycled. To tackle the magnitude of this problem, awareness, sensitivity and action is required to urgently change the consumption behaviour of people.”
“As part of Mission PenPals, WAY Everything Connects Foundation will reach out to at least 1,000 schools across India by 2025, as students who are the key consumers of this product can bring about a change and become the torchbearers of this cause. Our survey reveals that a school student uses some 40 pens in a year. To do away with this, we’re encouraging students to use fountain pens which can be reused,” said Ms Johari. “Discouraging the use of single-use pens can go a long way in reducing the carbon footprint. While policy changes are required, it is important that consumption is reduced by collective individual efforts.”
In the subsequent session, Dr Ajit Pathak, National President, PRSI, talked at length about the role of communication strategies and public relations in communicating sustainable objectives.
“Creating awareness to drive action is one of the most crucial factors that will lead a change towards sustainable development goals and sustainable living. The role of public relations, sending the right message to the relevant audiences, policymakers and other stakeholders is very important. Communication strategies can catalyse this actionable change and therefore, PR professionals must work in this direction in their respective pursuits,” Dr Pathak said.
Speaking on the issue, Mr Nikhil Aboti, Chairman, PRSI – Ahmedabad Chapter said, “As an industry body of Public Relations and Corporate Communications professionals, we are privy to the widespread use of single-use pens during conferences held throughout the year. Through this campaign, PRSI Ahmedabad chapter will encourage its members and fellow PR professionals to switch to sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic pens.”
WAY Foundation is a 14-year-old organization that works in the environment education and communications sector with an aim to achieve and propagate sustainable development in Gujarat as well as other Indian states. Their projects are aimed at Behavioural Change Communication Strategy & focus on long-term impact driven goals, covering 12 out of 19 sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), the national association of PR practitioners, was established in 1958 to promote the recognition of public relations as a profession and to formulate and interpret to the public the objectives and the potentialities of public relations as a strategic management function. The management of the Public Relations society of India is vested in the National Council, consisting of representatives elected by all the 26 regional chapters.
For further information please contact Prakshal Mehta @ 9898899508
