Published: April 22, 2011 9:00 AM
A group of Sikh youths will commemorate Vaisakhi by teaching their elders an important 
lesson about environmental sustainability.
During last year’s Vaisakhi parade, the Sikh Green Team combed 128 Street, collecting hundreds of plastic bottles and cans that had either been dumped as litter or ended up in the garbage.
“People just weren’t recycling,” says Sharon Kaur, one of the Sikh Green Team’s organizers.
“A lot of people have food stands along the street during the parade where they give out Styrofoam cups, for example. This is an opportunity to educate.”
The 15 or so young volunteers from the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple have spent this past year promoting the importance of recycling in the Sikh community.
A generation gap exists when it comes to education around recycling, Kaur believes. However, she says there is a tangible way for the youth in the Sikh community to explain these eco-friendly values to their parents and grandparents.
“We try to relate the environment to the older generations by talking about the importance of farming in the Punjab, in India,” says Kaur.
Fellow Sikh Green Team organizer Sukhminder Singh Virk believes elders have the younger generation beat in other areas of environmental sustainability.
Take for example diet, he says.
“While the younger generation will live in lower-density housing, eat out or purchase food items that produce waste, the older generation will often eat at home, producing large meals, often from scratch, for an extended family living in a single home,” says Virk
In Picture: Sikh green team members Sharon Kaur (left) and Ekjot Kaur at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple on Scott Rd. EVAN SEAL / THE LEADER
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