ACF has been involved in the environment issues of the city since its inception. Given Ahmedabad's dismal records in healthy environmental parameters, it has been an area of prime concern needing attention in terms of sensitisation, youth participation and identifying issues with which the citizens would connect rather spontaneously. Some of the activities that ACF took up this year is witness to the strategy of linking environment issues with the youth and their active participation.
CEE helped in orienting the volunteers about different issues on Environment such as Urbanisation, Solid Waste Management, Littering, Noise Pollution etc. This ten-month project which commenced in July 2001, saw the volunteers taking up writing of case studies on subjects like Traffic & Noise, Urban Green Spaces, Littering & Legalization of Slums. Volunteers also designed simple and do-able action projects after the case studies. CEE provided necessary expert support to the volunteers during the 10-month period of collaboration.
This project of ACF in being implemented through citizen volunteering and involvement. It aims to upgrade the environment of the city through planting of more trees and reduction in the usage of plastic bags This project was undertaken in collaboration with Center of Environment Education (CEE).
ACF will be working to popularise the usage of these alternatives and the volunteers will help in distributing them to households, shop keepers etc. ACF volunteers are also trying to tie up with supermarkets of Ahmedabad so that goods may be give to consumers in cloth bags instead of plastic bags
As a continuation of this project, ACF and CEE printed brochures and pamphlets that talk about the plastic devil and offers the option of using cloth bags.
In the coming year ACF is trying to put together a project that will facilitate various agencies to work in collaboration on the issue of solid waste management. (The issue of Waste has been emerged in most of the dialogues ACF has been having with concerned citizens of Ahmedabad).
Based on the networking with agencies of the Government, Waste Management is seen as one of the major issues that needs to be tackled. With a population of 4.13 million, Ahmedabad does not have any system of waste management.