Germany: No More Littering in Nature

This best practice example project focused on the topic of waste management. The project team learned about and developed waste avoidance strategies with the goal of reducing litter in nature. As a result, they developed a plastic free snack to bring to school, together with a list of tips to avoid littering in nature.

The project was developed throughout five meetings. The group proceeded by first discussing the topic, they wanted to focus on and brainstorming possible ideas. Thereupon, they agreed on the project topic of reducing litter in nature and developed a strategy on how to proceed.

To get a more accurate picture of how much discarded litter can be found in their local area, the group did a garbage collection campaign. In a short time span, they collected 25kg of garbage and disposed of the collected items correctly. The group also found that the participating school class alone produced a lot of plastic waste on the regular.

Their solution to reducing plastic waste: bringing a garbage-free snack to school!

The impacts were calculated in one unit through modelling. According to their calculations, the school class alone would produce 10 kg less waste per week if every single one participated. A joint decision was then taken to model a garbage free snack.

Furthermore, they formulated a list of recommendations on how to avoid the dispersion of plastic in nature: e.g. shop with cloth bags, buy recyclable packaging, separate garbage properly so that it can be recycled etc. Finally, they presented the results of the project to the public with posters in their school and a blog post in the school’s official newsblog. In conversation with the representative of the local Green Party, a student summed up: “We hope that you take the situation seriously. Because this is about our environment and our future. We will fight climate change and we will win.”