Recycling Workshop

 

Here at Freedom House we recycle a lot. Nothing will end in the trash can. For everything we'll find a next purpose.

Back at home, for us that's Holland, we wouldn't think about saving a broken parasol. Why save it if you don't use it anymore...? Just buy a new one! During our trip trough Thailand we already saw all the "trash" people keep under their houses. They save e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, because it might be useful in the future. First we thought "why don't they just throw it away, it looks awful" especially at holiday bungalows. Now we know they really might use it again.
I, as a teacher primary school, do feel now a little bit ashamed as I think of all the papers and things I have thrown away back home, just because I didn't have a good place to keep it.

We see now that you can do a lot with a little bit of creative thinking. Another volunteer, Madz, for example, was ironing plastic bags. We'll use the hard plastic tonight for making earrings.
Or what about using colorful pages from magazines to pack presents from the shop?

If you save a lot, you need a lot space to keep it. Because there was almost no more space and we wanted to teach the students about recycling, we decided to have a workshop about it.  So last Tuesday, 10th of November there was a recycling workshop by CCT.  We showed the students what you can do with trash that you normally will throw away.  One of the volunteers explained what recycling is about and how it works.  Then the students had to write down why they think recycling is important and how you can use trash again.
There were many good ideas, like "putting all groceries in one bag at the market keeps our environment clean".

Before the student started to make things from empty bottles, cans, paper boxes and many other things we showed some examples because the student are not familiar with these kind of projects.

They enjoyed making things. There were many different and beautiful things made. 
Time went fast. Like they say "time flies if you're having fun".

We hope the students are now inspired to use things again and again...

Dorien and Judith, current volunteers (six weeks)