Provide local recycling facilities, promote reduce, repair & reuse ideas AND generate income for local schools.
About Us:
Recycle for Education is a joint project with Sven Baumgärtel from Has Den Bosch University Holland, APE (Association for protection of the Environment) and volunteers from Projects Abroad.
Local waste in Khao Nor Chuchi, Thailand is usually burnt or taken to local landfill, government recycling facilities are not available. Many recyclable materials are disposed in this way polluting the environment and increasing demand on natural resources to make new products.
We are working together to increase the accessibility of recycling within the Khao Nor Chuchi area.
The project we have developed in conjunction with a local school is to set up recycling collection centres at schools in the area. The school will maintain the facilities and in return can use the income from selling recyclables to provide much needed funds to improve educational facilities and develop sustainability projects providing food for student's lunches.
We will have a launch workshop and produce and trial educational materials on environmental issues and waste.
But we don't want to stop there, we know that recycling isn't the best long term solution so we want to promote reduce, repair and reuse. We are going the extra step and are building the recycling centre from old plastic bottles, showcasing a great reuse idea. Lets hope that this creates a few more eco buildings in the area, our test build has certainly generated a lot of local interest!
So it's win, win, win. The environment benefits, reduce, repair, reuse is promoted & showcased and local schools raise money for education and sustainability projects!
Where Will Your Money Go?
This money is to develop all the educational materials and work in a minimum of 2 schools to build a basic recycle collection centre. We will launch the scheme with a workshop and provide 4 follow up lessons per school. We can then analyse the results and improve the system before being ready to roll out to more schools in the region in 'phase 2'. Any money left over will go to setting up the system in more local schools as part of phase 2.
We will...
Develop and produce educational materials (posters, signs, flags etc) for the Reduce, Reuse, Repair & Recycle part of the project.
Buy building materials to make 2 easy to maintain, rainproof recycle centres in local schools, showcasing as many reuse ideas as possible.
Provide a fun Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle workshop to launch the project and 4 follow up lessons per school.
Monitor & develop the facilities and prepare the scheme for phase 2.
Perks:
- $5 we'll send you a jungle screen saver from international rainforest artist Simon Buck.
- $20 we'll plant a local forest tree in your honour, label it with your name and post a photo of it on our facebook page for you to download and treasure.
- $30 we'll send you a mightily popular APE T-shirt.
- $40 we'll plant a tree and send you a t-shirt
- We were shocked when we visited local landfills to find them full of recyclable materials... by making recycling more accessible in KNC we hope to improve this sad situation reducing the drain on our planet's limited natural resources.
- Clean up Krabi, a lot of the bottles we used for our test ‘bottle wall’ were from local beach and roadside cleans, which not only clean up but also raise awareness of waste issues among locals and tourists. For example did you know that many sea turtles get sick from eating clear plastic bags thinking they are jelly fish?
- Educate local children and their families about the importance of the 4 R's - Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. APE work in local schools and we know how many great ideas kids have, encourage young minds to develop eco solutions for themselves and help shape the future.
- Showcase reuse ideas in our workshops and in the recycle centre itself. We have already built one wall with old plastic bottles and volunteer labour, so we know it's possible.. you just have to give the money, that is a lot easier than filling 4500 bottles with mud! But luckily we have volunteers and school children to help us!!
- Generate income for local schools :) - need we say more?
Other Ways You Can Help
If you cannot spare money for the project then don't despair, maybe you know someone who can? By passing on the information about this great project you can help us with one click!
Remember to your RRRR’s and if you have joined in any projects in your area feel free to share them on our wall.
Watch this space for updates and be sure to 'share' with all your friends and family.
Thank you to everyone for your support, time and contributions to Recycle for Education. from all of us :)
