School

School takes a big part of our daily lives. Children spend almost 15% of their waking hours in school by the age of 18. The importance of upbringing children in an inspiring environment have an impact on their whole future. Motivating one kid to lead an eco-friendly life can have an influence on his/her peers too. If one child is taught the right behaviour, the message spreads. His/her friends also start behaving in such a way, because they don't see it as a rule imposed by the school anymore. For this reason and more, school has an enormous impact on changing our impact on the environment in a positive way. In order to increase the efficiency in which this is done, we created some points of attention, or otherwise called recommendations.

1. Putting interactive machines for plastic waste inside every school.

In many schools, waste is a common thing to be found on the ground. Inside of the school, this causes only minimal problems, which is the time it takes to pick up from the ground. Outside of the school, however, this causes more serious problems, as this plastic floats away from it original spot, often ending up in the stomachs of innocent birds or in the extremely large plastic soup, which is increasing at this very moment. To prevent this, interactive garbage bins/ machines for garbages could be put into place. In these machines, the people that throw away their garbage get rewarded by a slight action of this machine, making this very action fun, as well as good for the environment.

2. Teachers using more ecological tools, reducing the use of plastic and amount of paper used for tests.

Instead of using enormous amount of paper, schools could introduce using small whiteboards while making exercises. Also, other digital tools (example: google docs on a tablet) could be useful and can be controlled by teachers while making tests. Though this uses energy, this would still be beneficial when compared with the enormous amount of damage that is done processing trees into the paper we use.

3. Introducing more active lessons, where kids can participate in projects and experiments.

Several practical experiments and assignments about the environment, for example making a map of global warming 50 years ago and now could greatly improve the awareness of children about what we are doing to our own planet. Not only should we give out lessons about the effects of our actions, but also what we can do against these negative effects. In this way they stay hopefull for the future, but know that something has to be done.

4. Preparing more lessons in nature/green houses.

Technology used in green houses and activities provided by its workers may give children more joyful and unique experience. Also playing and learning in the local nature around the school gives children a joyful experience in nature. These activities make them aware of their inner love for nature, which makes them want to protect this very nature latere in live, and thus act in a positive way for the environment.

5. Introducing sustainability and global warming as interdisciplinary subjects to all schools and on all levels.

When sustainability and global warming are introduced as interdisciplinary subjects, children can become aware of not only how pressing these matters are, but also how they can solve this problem themselves. By learning this, they also get a positive and inventive view on the world, which is something which will help them tackle their later problems in life.

6. School cantines are forced to reduce their use of plastic by 50%.

A lot of cantines nowadays use plastic to cover their products. This is not fully their fault, as many commercial food products are kept fresh by the use of products. As many products are made freshly on a daily basis in these cantines, the use of plastic is not necessary. If certain foods are contained well until being sold, in a hygienic place, the use of plastic in these canteens should be easily reduced. This also gives out a good example to all students.

7. Organise eco-friendly contests to encourage the students.

For example: During five weeks, the students will have to organise their classes to do their best in recycling, reduction of their energy use and other eco-friendly activities. The winner will have an award, which is of course something unharmful for nature.