Organised by the Faculty of Social Work, M S University as part of the youth week and the university's golden jubilee, the contest saw all participants reiterating the need to do away with plastic.

Pointed out one of the students Mrinalini Lele, ``Soon, lack of fresh air and clean water would be a problem.'' She said reports on felling of trees and choking of drains had become a regular feature in newspapers.

Science Faculty student P Kumar said people should make an attempt at making the world a better place to live and take up cleaning their backyard as an initiative.

He pointed out that while no one missed an opportunity to preach the hazards of plastics, in practicality very few avoided plastic bags even when they had an alternative.

``If one goes for shopping, especially vegetables, they should see to it that they carry their bags rather than depending on the vegetable owners to give you a plastic bag,'' he said.

A Commerce student felt being unfriendly with the environment was just being plain selfish. ``While we use everything from nature, we dirty our surroundings by dumping all sorts of garbage, including plastic, which is hazardous to the environment''.

She said the youth could lead the way and do away with these materials, specially since there were affordable and adoptable alternatives.

The contest was organised jointly by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the Faculty. As many as 37 students participated in the contest. The students were adjudged by S D Sabnis, Pratima Desai and P R Gharekhan.