Our Are you R Team strongly believes that education – from the very beginning – is essential to make an actual change in everyday habits.
That’s why we gathered 5 school-related plastic recycling projects in our new article. It’s a fun and effective way to raise awareness among very young students about civic and environment responsibility.
Today’s children will be tomorrow’s women and men – that’s why it’s fundamental to understand the importance of acting in a well-behaved and respectful way!
Class(y) recycling
That is the contest organised by Conai – Consorzio Nazionale Imballaggi (the Italian national packaging consortium) – in cooperation with the Italian daily newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera”, which involves primary schools all over Italy. This contest was about writing any kind of composition to illustrate creatively how people can contribute to environmental sustainability.
Waste = Resource
This project, which was created by Conip – Consorzio Imballaggi in Plastica – (Plastic Packaging Consortium), is called “A scuola di riciclo” (recycling school) and was conceived to show young people how waste can be a very important resource if properly treated. Conip “thinks that showing young people the importance of recycling any kind of waste can be strategic to pursue the environmental protection common goals.
The objectives include the willingness to create a synergy among the education system, families
and companies to develop environment responsibility. In addition to learning activities and works about material recycling, this project also involves the development of an object from recycled material to maximize the students’ creativity.
Recycling class!
Telling students what ‘recycling’ actually means and how any kind of waste can be valuable for the whole society, not least economically. That’s the goal of the “Scuola lezione riciclaggio” (Recycling school class) that was made possible by the founders of the Amico dell’ambiente association that brought many educational and practical activities into primary schools and kindergartens so that children could discover the magical plastic recycling world – in cooperation with important recycling companies.
Supporting schools with plastic
In cooperation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Akshar Foundation created a system that allows low-income families to use single-use plastic instead of money to pay private schools in India.
In addition to giving children the chance to get access to quality education, this foundation transforms plastic waste into bricks, thus promoting recycling. This programme was so successful that state schools all over the country are considering the idea of replicating it. Akshar, indeed, has recently signed an agreement with Assam’s government to implement this educational model in five other state schools.
Using plastic waste to build schools
Let’s conclude this overview by mentioning an important project that does not only affect the educational world, but the whole society.
UNICEF has been working together with the Colombian social enterprise Conceptos Plasticos since 2019 to recycle plastic waste in Côte d’Ivoire and build 500 school classes for over 25,000 children.
Thanks to this project, 9,600 tonnes of plastic waste are recycled every year and, in addition to giving many children the opportunity to study in suitable environments while helping the environment, a source of income in the recycling industry is provided to women living in poverty.
You can have a look at the concrete results of this amazing initiative here!
We all hope that projects like these will be more and more duplicated in schools all over the world.
Do you know about any other school-related recycling initiatives? Write us or tell us in the comments below!