Harnessing Youthful Creativity for Environmental Cleanup

USAID is helping schools lead a campaign to develop environmental awareness in schools and communities through student action projects.

Lack of environmental awareness is widespread in Kosovo; garbage litters picnic areas, the countryside and town centers. In addition to posing environmental and health problems, garbage has a negative impact on Kosovo’s nascent tourist industry. USAID’s Basic Education Program (BEP) is training teachers to instill environmental awareness at an early age.

As students from "Iliria" primary school in Pristina learned when they went to a nearby scenic lake, the main problem is discarded plastic bottles. Eighth grade students from the school made a film to highlight this problem using “Flip” video cameras provided by USAID.

“The most effective way of raising awareness among students is to get them involved.” – said Fadil Krasniqi, technology teacher at Iliria School. “They spread it at home, among friends; it becomes their project, therefore their responsibility and not just something they were supposed to listen to while in class.”

USAID’s Basic Education Program asked teachers who had attended its courses to give their students a challenge - to design a machine that would crush plastic bottles so they could be stored and transported to small recycling plants being established in Kosovo, some with USAID assistance.

On June 30th 2011, the winning designs from 17 schools were presented at an exhibition held in the energy-efficient, Pristina Green School, built with USAID support. The event brought together 150 students, teachers, officials of the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Education, environmental NGO’s, local bottling companies, and recycling companies.

In the prize ceremony, representatives of the Ministries of Education and Environment presented “Flip” video cameras for the top five designs and a control technology kit for each participating school.

During the event, a local manufacturing company expressed interest in adapting the best “bottle crusher” design for mass production, while a recently established recycling company committed to collecting crushed bottles from schools. A follow-up round table conference will be organized in September to plan a recycling system based on partnerships with ministries, municipalities, schools, NGOs and private business.