On Monday (29th January), we visited the eco school Sun Ray in Plovdiv, Bulgaria together with my friend and zero-waste supporter Keith Kelly from Anglia School.
The children were wonderful, inspirational and reminded me one more time how important the cause of Revolucia is, the preservation of our mother Earth. Keith had the great idea of beginning our visit with a little game- The King of Trash. Keith put on his special “ugly” costume and crown (stitched with trash). Some of the children also wanted to try the costume on, we couldn’t say no to such cuties ? We asked them where each piece of trash came from (food packaging, drinks packaging, medicines, etc.) This way we directed the children’s attention to one essential point - plastic packaging.
The children knew that plastic packaging can take up to 800 years to decompose but they didn’t know what happens to this packaging after it’s thrown away in the bin. Together we traced the journey of the plastic packages from the bin to the landfill and from there to the oceans with the help of the film Trashed World. The children agreed that not a single beach should be full of trash and that each one of us can contribute to the world’s waste reduction.
To help children identify the sources of trash in their every day life, we asked them to draw a map of the trash in their homes, pointing in which rooms there is most trash and where it comes from (food and drinks packaging, plastic bags, etc.)
I was very pleasantly surprised that all children knew what compost is, how to use it and what kind of waste can one throw there, cuddos to the eco school Sun Ray which have a wonderful garden with trees and a compost.
The kitchen was the predominant place with most accumulated trash of plastic food packaging, as you can imagine. The bathroom came second with trash from the body care products’ packaging and toilet paper.
We asked the children whether they would like to see some useful zero-waste products and they all answered yes! To make the product presentation easier to comprehend, we separated the products into several categories:
- For school (thermos flask, lunch box, bee’s wrap, instead of plastic wrap, stainless steel cutlery + straws and our favourite edible spoons)
- When shopping (cloth bags, food containers to buy street food package-free, stainless steel straws + cutlery, thermos flasks/reusable bottles which they can use when they want to buy freshly squeezed juice when outside)
- At home (bamboo toothbrush, shampoo in a glass bottle/shampoo bar, tooth powder which they can make individually or together with the help of mum and dad
The children liked most the edible cutlery, the stainless steel straws and the bee’s wrap and they were all thrilled about seeing such reusable products for the very first time.
And just like that in games and laughter, 40 minutes passed in the blink of an eye…thank you from the bottom of my heart, lovely souls for recharging me with positive energy and optimism for the future of our planet Earth!
PS. If you’d like us to visit your school as well, get in touch with me (Vera) or with Keith and we’ll arrange a convenient day and time. The class can be in English or Bulgarian, up to you. Keith is British and I have an English teaching certificate and a Bachelor’s from a UK university.
Wishing you a wonderful and inspirational week ahead!
Yours,
Vera