Addressing Cultural Challenges in a Global Service Learning Project to Reduce Plastic Waste in Rural India

Abstract

In the summer of 2015, a group of chemical and mechanical engineering undergraduate students from the University of Kentucky Paducah Extended Campus Program participated in a Global Service Learning and Sustainability course focused on implementing a project to convert waste plastic into a sustainable liquid fuel in rural southern India. The successful construction, operation and testing of the liquid fuel in local diesel powered irrigation pumps will be described. Service learning projects conducted in other countries often face cultural hurdles that are quite different than in traditional study abroad programs. Working side-by-side with local people requires adapting to cultural practices that may be quite different from the students’ expectations. To address this, cultural aspects and social sustainability were included in a lecture component of the service learning course as well as in the implementation of the service project. The learning outcomes for this course included providing students with clear understanding of the key issues of sustainability and sustainable community development in rural and underdeveloped regions and educating them as to how engineers must consider cultural factors when working in underdeveloped regions. This service learning project was conducted in collaboration with the Organization of Development Action and Maintenance (ODAM) in Tiruchuli, India.