REbags ‘nature in a bag’ is a joint effort of four young students from Chennai – Akshat, Badrinarayan, Anirudh and Vignesh. All of them are students of Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School, Adyar, Chennai and study in 9th std.

According to their website: “RE stands for Restore the Environment. We realized the need to protect the environment from the plastic-crazy world…and thus we started selling cloth bags, so that people would use them instead of plastic.”

The team introduced Mrs Padmini Mani, our Managing Trustee, for her pioneering work in making Kodaikanal a plastic-free zone. You can also see it on their website on this link:

Interviewing Mrs. Padmini Mani

As many of you may be aware, Kodaikanal is a beautiful little hill town in Southern India which has seen tremendous efforts of its  residents to make it a plastic-free zone. The RE:bags team interviewed Mrs. Padmini Mani, who was one of the pioneers of this initiative. She is the founder of ‘My school Satya Surabhi’, a school for the underprivileged in the remote hills of Kodaikanal.

REbags: How did this idea about the ban of plastic in Kodaikanal occur to you? How many of you have been involved in this?

Mrs. Padmini: At the outset I would like to congratulate you for taking up the menacing issue of the use of plastic. Please spread the word and keep up the fight.
The idea occurred to me when I visited The U.S in 1990 I noticed that the roads and other places were not littered with plastic which looks ugly to say the least. I came back to India and wanted to clean up Kodaikanal. Since I was teaching my task became easier I motivated a group of students whom I made aware about the dangers of Plastic use and then we started hands on cleaning movement, we went about talking to shops, restaurants and homes showing them how plastic is harmful to the environment.

REbags: What was the response of the people? Were there any protests?

Mrs. Padmini: Initially the response of the people was very negative because they did not realize the dangers and hazards of Plastic use. There were no protests but the plastic continued to show its ugly face. We wrote to the Green Bench as also the Collector. All we received was lip sympathy. But with the help of like-minded friends, we were able to take this initiative forward.

Mrs. Padmini: At last plastic is officially banned in Kodaikanal and there is a fine of Rs. 500/ if you are caught using plastic.

Mrs. Padmini: Not as of now. However I continue to tell people, restaurants and other offenders wherever I go. The plastic menace in Kodaikanal is still not resolved. The tourists still use it because they are lazy. Another reason is that there is not enough publicity. In this regard the Government should take up the matter on a war footing and we now rely on young people like you with zeal.

REbags: How do you create awareness for this concept in the mind of your students and teachers?

Mrs. Padmini: We talk to our students every day, show by example, that if there are mounds of plastic nothing will grow in that place, as plastic is non-degradeable. Thus spoil the environment. It is a continual war and needs the cooperation of the Government, public, and workers. As long as there is a big and powerful lobby (the plastic bag industry) we may not be able to get rid of its rampant use. But we will keep trying and believing in what we are doing.

REbags: Can you give us some guidelines that we can all implement?

Mrs. Padmini:

• SPREAD AWARENESS – Educate the public in the dangers of the use of plastic. They themselves have to say NO to plastic.
• PLASTIC DISPOSAL – All plastic has to be disposed of separately. People should be taught and encouraged to separate the plastic from the organic waste, in their homes itself.
• TEACH BY EXAMPLE – Never accept anything in a plastic packing.
• Keep sending APPEALS AND REPRESENTATIONS to the Government, Panchayat and other Government bodies.
• DO NOT GIVE UP.