University students to give green tips to Michelle Obama

Finally, a few students of the University of Mumbai will also get a chance to meet the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

The students will her give a presentation on ‘eco binding’, which involves tearing out unused blank pages from notebooks and binding them into fresh notebooks.
The meeting was arranged after vice-chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar wrote to the
authorities.

The university had got the idea of eco binding from a contest it had organised a few weeks ago. Eco binding was the winning idea by Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE), where students are encouraged to find ways to reduce the falling of trees and wastage of paper.

The idea revolves around the assumption that every student uses a notebook and, after every semester, each notebook has unused pages which normally gets wasted. The proposal is to donate these blank pages to a centralised group, a university official added.

“Our 10-15 students will give the presentation on this idea to Michelle Obama,” the official added.

Apart from this, the first lady will participate in a programme of one of the city NGOs, which work with poor children. She will speak to the children on November 6 between 3pm and 4.30pm.

Earlier, the US consulate had finalised the programme with an NGO, but after several meetings with consulate officials, they agreed to share the view with varsity students.