3 December 2019
About a year ago, Minsk Gymnasium № 19 decided to give up plastics as much as possible. This environmental innovation is not a surprise for local schoolchildren. Here they are used to saving resources, many of them get to school by bicycle, sort garbage, develop and implement ecoprojects – in short, do everything to reduce the impact on the environment. People call this gymnasium ecological. The original article has been published on ecoidea.by.
The bell rings. The open doors of the classrooms release dozens of children into the corridor. The first results of the project “School without Plastic” can already be seen: schoolchildren carry sports uniform in green rag bags with the gymnasium logo, which means minus dozens of disposable bags.
We meet Larisa Peskova, an English teacher, but we get acquainted with her in another capacity – as the head of the project “School without Plastic”.
Larisa Peskova, head of the project “School without Plastic”. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
– Every day there is more and more plastic in our lives: it overflows dumps, disintegrates into micro-particles, gets into all living organisms on the planet and does it not without harm. It is important to know this not only for environmentalists, but for everyone else, including children from early age, says Larisa Nikolayevna. – And the school can become the place where they will be taught to reduce their plastic footprints. Or maybe it won’t. After all, often in order to simplify their lives, educational institutions close their eyes to simple environmental solutions. For example, parents are often encouraged to buy disposable glasses.
– One of the tasks of our project is to organize drinking conditions at school without using plastic dishes, says Larisa.
In the new school year, coolers with drinking water connected to the central water supply system have appeared in the gymnasium. This is how bottled water was abandoned here. Servicing the cooler does not require plastic containers; you just need to change the filters periodically. In total, 11 coolers with drinking water were supplied to the gymnasium, which is enough for 730 pupils and 70 teachers. Buying coolers requires considerable initial investment, but hopefully in the gymnasium the system will pay off quickly, and most importantly it is an environmentally friendly alternative to bottled water.
Places for drinking. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
We see that the transition to school life without plastics is happening, but not all at once. There are disposable plastic cups in the urns next to each cooler. Immediately a primary school student runs up, grabs a cup from the holder, pours water, drinks and runs back to class. And that’s 15 seconds.
Older kids come out of the next class, fourth graders. But they have reusable water bottles. Turns out there are about ten people in their class with their own bottles. They confess: it is even more comfortable to be with your own containers, you do not need to run for a cup every time.
Children find their own bottles more comfortable. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
We ask the guys from 9B if they know why they had installed coolers in the gymnasium. They know: We’re for giving up disposable plastic. On information hours, high school and high school students show the youngest bottles of water, tell us why they carry them and are encouraged to do the same.
– There were no categorical refusals to disposable bottles among parents, said the teacher. – The problem of plastic lies on the surface, and nobody denies it anymore. Most of the reusable bottles that children carry are also plastic, but they are durable. You can use it for several years and not only on school grounds.
Meanwhile plastic is still available in the gymnasium. Like other types of potential recyclable materials, it has been collected here separately for ten years. The car of the Belvtorresursy enterprise comes to get the recycled garbage.
– It’s better to make sure there’s no plastic in your bins at all. If the car takes it away for recycling, it does not mean that it will be recycled at all, – says Maria Suma, an employee of the Center for Environmental Solutions, to the students. – In Belarus, there is still a problem with processing of plastic dishes because they are too small to collect, and it is not clear what kind of plastic they are made of. Therefore, the glasses from the bin under the coolers will most likely just get to the dump.
If students bring recycled materials to school, they receive special leaflets and then prizes. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
An alternative to plastics in this gymnasium can be seen in other subjects. For example, instead of PVC covers for textbooks, some children have fabric covers.
Linen cover for a book. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
There is a group of proactive parents in the gymnasium who make plywood bookends for their children. When organizing school events balloons were abandoned in favor of homemade decorations.
Not only plastic
The topic of ecofriendliness is included here in almost every lesson, and each of the classes is responsible for its own environmental direction. For example, students of 9B are working to reduce emissions and are campaigning for using bicycles. The conditions in the gymnasium are as comfortable as possible: a bicycle lane approaches the gymnasium and there is a bicycle parking lot.
Bicycle infrastructure of the gymnasium. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
On the Day without a car, which is annually held in Belarus on September 22, pupils and students tell minskers why they should choose bicycles. On the Health Day, all children are invited to come to the gymnasium by bike and take part in competitions.
– All parents know that children have the opportunity to come by bike. We show that it is not only possible, it is normal, – says Larisa Peskova.
There is a bookcrossing shelf in the corridor that allows you to update your personal library.
Bookcrossing shelf. Photo by Yulia Semenchenko
There is a garden in one of the classrooms, where pupils can take care of plants and animals.
During handcraft classes pupils use upcycling techniques for the decorations.
How to make your “School without Plastic”
If your school wants to join the “School without Plastic” initiative, think about what you can change today. It can be both simple solutions and more complex. If you need advice, contact Centre for Environmental Solutions. Maria Suma, an employee of the organization, is ready to make a “plastic” audit in your educational institution and, together with a school initiative group, develop scenarios on the first changes (as it was in Gymnasium 19 in Minsk).
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