An hour-long lesson last year on how to segregate waste at source, involving 12,994 people of this city, has fetched C.G.S. Manion, a member of the polyester division of Reliance Industries, a Guinness World Record.
Manion, who has to his credit nearly 15 years of work towards environment protection, was selected by the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation to conduct a lesson on recycling on August 5 last year, which the Guinness has recognised.
In its citation, Guinness World Record called it the largest recycling lesson.
"This event was an attempt to reach a majority of local households with practical messages on waste segregation, reduce dumping of waste and recover for recycling and composting," it said.
The environment expert's campaigns also work in tandem at his employer Reliance Industries' own facilities, townships and adjoining places through a host of initiatives like the one on a sustainable system to collect and dispose used plastic bottles in a green manner.
"These projects are very special to me -- not for the Guinness Reco rd, but for reaching out to our society for a genuine social cause," said Manion, also associated with a non-profit organisation that has undertaken works like restoration of water bodies and afforestation.
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Named Siruthuli -- a small drop of water in Tamil -- the non-profit venture started with projects to rejuvenate water sources in this city and has now ventured further into afforestation, waste management and awareness programmes.
"Such efforts are reflections of our company's commitment to 'recycle, reduce and re-use'," a Reliance Industries spokesperson said, referring to how the company re-uses plastics to replace carcinogenic asbestos and make pre-coloured fabrics to avoid harmful dyeing later.
"We see such efforts as an inspiration for our 'go green with swatch Bharat' campaign," the spokesperson said, and added that the strategy involved creating awareness on safe disposal of plastic bottles, adopt a systematic collection system and making fibres out of them.
At some high-profile events like the Indian Premier League cricket matches, the venues are peppered with banners explaining safe disposal methods and calling upon patrons to bring their plastic bottles for a "greener future".