Point of You - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Delisa Troupe, Jordan Anderson

In this episode, host Delisa Troupe speaks with some of Northview's Environmental Club leaders, Vidhi Tiwary and Adiva Puttnam, about their efforts to lobby for a recycling and composting center in Johns Creek. They discuss the environmental club's accomplishments along with their pursuits to promote sustainability. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music. 

Delisa Troupe: Hello and welcome to Point of View where we give students a place to listen, learn, and lean in. I'm your host, Delisa Troupe, and today we'll be talking to the leadership of Northview's Environmental Club, Vidhi Tiwary and Adiva Puttnam. Hi guys, how are you doing today? I'm good. And you?

Vidhi Tiwary: Good. How are you?

Adiva Puttnam: I'm doing well.

Delisa: Okay. So Vidhi, I want to start with you because you're the co founder and the co president, correct?

Vidhi: Yes.

Delisa: Okay, so what was your inspiration behind founding the environmental club at Northview?

Vidhi: I guess the inspiration is everything that goes on in our generation and our society. We're supposed to be the woke generation. We're supposed to be aware about what's going on in the environment, and we're supposed to implement changes. So Sofia and I both realized that in our school itself, in our community, there isn't any outlet for environmental outreaching. So we decided we should take that step forward. And we should start a club for that.

Delisa: And is this something you cared passionately about before you started the club?

Vidhi: Of course, even in gardening itself, tending to plants and fruits, like as a hobby, that was another thing. And then myself, I'm a vegetarian. I tend to use sustainable products, vegan cruelty free products. So of course, I've been aware about it, and I've spread information about it as well. In fact, two years ago, two summers ago, I was able to plant around 150 trees with my family in India to promote how trees are helping with agriculture and how we need to improve sustainability in third world countries.

Delisa: So is this something that your family cares about as well?

Vidhi: Yes, of course, I would say my family is deeply into the whole sustainability and being environmentally friendly trope. My parents are my inspiration basically.

Delisa: And Adiva, what about you? Why did you decide to join environmental club?

Adiva: I decided to partner with environmental club because I was working on my Gold Award for Girl Scouts. So I was looking through STEM opportunities, what can I do that's different, and can help the world change, and to help the world in general. I was just searching online, and my mom was helping me, and then we found out through the Georgia government website that there's this program called Adopt-A-Stream, and it's funded by the government. And basically, I looked through the opportunities they have, and I saw that they had chemical monitoring, which sounded very interesting to me, because you get to like play with chemicals, and you get to test the waters. Yeah, it just sounded interesting. So I looked into it. And it seemed very important because you need to use these chemicals to test on the water, and see what's in our water and see the pH and things like that, because you need to see if your water is clean and healthy, because we actually get all of our water from local waterways. Most of our water comes from the Chattahoochee River. So testing on these streams and bodies of water are really important. So I decided to use that as my Gold Award. And then I just started building upon there. And I saw that Vidhi already started an environmental club. So it would just be easier for me to partner with them to create a whole new club, where people have to attend both environmental and chemical monitoring.

Delisa: That's cool. So tell me about other events or things that you guys have accomplished over the past two years.

Vidhi: Okay. So over the past two years let's start with sophomore year. I'm just gonna pull up a thing because I don't have the best memory. But let's see. So of course, we started this last year in our sophomore year, and obviously, it was online. So we first started small and see what's the thing we can start off with, which will have a slight impact. So we started with spreading awareness about things that were going on in the environment currently. We'd urge our members to look at these petitions about what's happening in the Arctic. Look at that. We started small, obviously. So then, in, I believe, November of 2020, we had our first recycling talk, and we discussed the importance of recycling. And I was actually surprised as to how many people didn't know what exactly can and cannot get recycled. Because in Johns Creek itself, you cannot recycle glass in your recycling bins. You have to go to a separate facility to get that recycled. So we spread information about that. And then we brainstormed having a glass drive, like going by each neighborhood and collaborating with the HOA and seeing if glass can be collected from each house if they have it and you know, send it. And you know, obviously because it's COVID times it was quite difficult to do that. So we couldn't really work on that. But then second semester, our plans really came to fruition. So we did Trees Atlanta volunteering, which is a program that's based in Atlanta. And you can register for it as a club, as a community, as a group, or as an individual. So we signed up Northview for that, and we were able to get our members to do different programs on the weekends. And it's all across Atlanta. That was the beauty behind it. It wasn't just Johns Creek, it was like the entire region. You could go to Oakland or you could go to Suwanee, Alpharetta, all those regions. So you could help plant trees, and then all that. And then we had a compost talk and then an article on the messenger spreading information about that in the second semester of sophomore year. And then I think the biggest thing that we were able to do second semester was plant our first garden at Northview from our clubs. So, it was really cool collaborating with our members and just creating something. It was so refreshing to see. And just, it was amazing to be able to do it and make it hands on. And then this year, because school wasn't online, we were really able to do stuff that we had planned. So obviously, with the help of Adiva, and with collaboration, we were able to do monthly chemical monitoring with our members, which is a great opportunity I would think. Everything that Adiva mentioned about it, it really is a great program. And then along with chemical monitoring, we were able to do certification of members, myself included, and it was just a really cool opportunity and way to do all that to get certified. And then we were able to have, this was also with Adiva, to have online guest speakers from nature preserves, correct? If you want to elaborate on that.

Adiva: Yeah, it was through Adopt-A-Stream. She was actually the one who certified me, but I just reached out to her and she gave me a list of speakers. She was willing enough to come last second because no one was really responding. And she gave us a nice, she did a show and tell of the animals at her nature center. And she talked about it, so it was nice.

Vidhi: It was really nice. We got to see such cute turtles and everything. Yeah, and then also, our biggest thing that me and Sofia were trying to do this year is lobby for, I don't know if I'm able to say this, but recycling doesn't happen at Northview. Ms. Janess and her class, they collect recycling, but it ends up going in the same place as the trash does, because the school or the county doesn't have, I guess the money to do all that. So recycling doesn't happen at our school. So me and Sofia, last semester, we communicated with Downey and Mr. Hunter, and Ms. Janess on what we can do to help start that. And, you know, Mr. Hunter said it was a difficult thing to do, because of how much waste is produced and how much money it costs to collect it. And it really is a county thing, it isn't by school by school, so you'd really have to contact the superintendent. So once we heard an update on that, Sofia and I straightaway got planning for the second semester. So this semester we have tons of plans. Specifically, I'm allowed to go in depth about it, right?

Delisa: Mhm.

Vidhi: Specifically collaborating with city council members about starting recycling and even composting at Northview. So I'm not sure if you know her, but Councilman Erin Elwood, I've been in contact with her about starting it. She's the one who gave us the idea to first start it at Northview and talk with Mr. Downey and Mr. Hunter about it. And then recently, I was able to get in contact with Councilman Dilip Tunki, who elaborated on how he works on a nonprofit organization that focuses on composting. So we're in contact with them to start lobbying for recycling, and even composting to start at Johns Creek and at Northview, as well. So it's great working with pro-environmental politicians in our community. So that's what we've been doing for the second semester. And then we have our annual end of the year garden this year, as well. So we're really excited for that. Since we have more members this year, we're going to be doing more plots, and it's going to be much more collaborative. Delisa Troupe Yeah, it sounds really interesting. So it seems like this is something you guys are really passionate about. And as I've seen, even when you guys were online, you seem to do a lot of work. So how much effort and work do you guys put in every week to plan all of this? Vidhi Tiwari I would say a good, well, it does take some time to plan the events, especially in COVID times, there's a lot of restrictions. So you have to be mindful about that even more than usual. So I would say a decent amount of time planning events, and then we have to obviously ask our club sponsor Ms. Rogers, who's so sweet and so supportive of our ideas. And she's always offering us some new ideas as well, and then with Adiva's chemical monitoring. Adiva Puttnam Getting started last year, it actually took a lot of contacting, and a lot of planning ahead of time, and I had to get confirmation from three different parties. So it did take a while. But now that all of that is done and everything is set, all I have to do is really just plan the dates. And then we're set for the field trips, but it did take a while last semester. Vidhi Tiwari Yeah, even in the summer, Adiva was really proactive with this. She reached out about this chemical monitoring that she had in the summer itself. So we started planning in the summer, and she reached out to all them and I was there, CC'd in all the emails and seeing how much work and effort is put into it, and how much responding and communicating it takes. So definitely did take some effort to implement everything that we had, and then have planned. Delisa Troupe Did you guys feel like it's been successful? Do you feel proud of what you've done so far? Adiva Puttnam Yes, I definitely feel proud because we've gone so far, where now we're doing monthly field trips ever since I think August, the first month of the school year, and we even got seven people certified, and then I got certified, like recertified. So I think that was just wonderful. And I think I did really come far from just talking to people to actually doing it. Vidhi Tiwari Myself included. Our club last year, in our first virtual meeting, about eight people attended. And of course, it was online, I was like, okay, whatever. It's not a big deal. I don't really care. But obviously, you know, it hurt a little like, you start something you want people to join it. And then this year, I was able to see how much growth we had for even such simple club meetings people actually attended. They showed that they cared and they put their effort in as well. So of course, I'm proud of everything that we have planned and people outreaching us. The fact that we're even able to work with the local city government is just amazing to me, I'm really proud. Two years ago, we were just sitting on a team saying, 'Hey, we should make a post about, you know, being aware about the environment.' And now it's like, oh, we're actually doing something, I'm showing you how to be environmentally aware and showing you and communicating with people who can help make that happen. Delisa Troupe For your recycling and the composting center, like your plan to get that pushed forward, do you guys think that that will be successful? Or has it been difficult trying to reach people and stuff like that. Vidhi Tiwari It definitely has been difficult because I reached out to the council people during the summer itself. And they said, establishing a recycling center at Johns Creek will take a while. So it'll have to be through non profit organizations that do separate recycling or separate composting. And that's exactly what Dilip Tunki does, because he works with an organization like that. So it won't directly be through the city government. It'll be more like a collaborative effort of both. Like if it's implemented at school, it will have to be led by students. So yeah, it will take some effort to place. Delisa Troupe And you guys are both juniors right now, so obviously, is this something that you hope to accomplish before you graduate? Vidhi Tiwari Yes. Adiva Puttnam Yes, and I hope that the underclassmen carry on our legacy. You want to make it sustainable. Yeah. Keep it going. Vidhi Tiwari Yeah. Delisa Troupe Do you feel like you've started caring a lot more about the environment and stuff since you started the club or joined the club? Adiva Puttnam Yes, yeah. Vidhi Tiwari I've always been passionate about it, but being part of the club really made me more aware about things. Adiva Puttnam Yes, and it's a great opportunity to meet other people that feel the same way. And I'm very proud of our club members too, because they take the time and effort out of their day to sign up for events and show up. So it was really a blessing to have these people join these events and really promote these issues. Vidhi Tiwari It was raining one day and people still showed up. I was like, okay, okay. Adiva Puttnam They definitely superseded my expectations. I wasn't expecting so many people to sign up. I really passed my goal. Delisa Troupe That's good. Adiva Puttnam That felt really nice. Delisa Troupe Would you encourage people to join environmental club and what would you say to them if they could all hear you right now, all the new upcoming freshmen or sophomores? Vidhi Tiwari I would say, if you care or if you want to be more educated about the environment for sure, join this club. It has opportunities that will help you become more advanced and learn about sustainability and you will be on the action of helping spread awareness about sustainability. You will be playing out and you will participate, and it's just a great first hand experience. So definitely join. Adiva Puttnam Yeah, I agree with that statement, and I also think that many people don't think that when you're in high school and joining a club, you're not making that much of a difference. But that's not true, because when you're signing up for these events, and you're really taking action, you're helping out so many people. For example, in Adopt-A-Stream, they don't have as many volunteers, but with people joining chemical monitoring, and people getting certified, you're helping that organization, and it's directly connected to the government. So things that may seem that, 'Oh, I'm just one volunteer, what am I doing?' It’s also with other organizations too, not just that of course. It's very helpful. Vidhi Tiwari Not even organization, but your community itself. You're helping your community and what better volunteering task and more rewarding task is that, that you're helping others and your community? Adiva Puttnam Yeah, and for free too. It's not expensive. Vidhi Tiwari You don't gotta worry about those fees, $300 a semester. Don't worry about that. Delisa Troupe Okay, I think that's all the time we have today. Thank you guys so much for coming out. Adiva Puttnam Thank you so much for having us. Vidhi Tiwari Thank you Delisa. Join environmental club! Delisa Troupe So this concludes our interview with Vidhi and Adiva. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the Point of View tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook at nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. I'm your host Delisa Troupe, and this has been Point of View.