April 2019 - The English Times April Newspaper | Page 9

mistaken as food, so it can stay in their
going to stay there for a hundred years. stomach and disable them from eating actual
Some may say, “Okay, so why don’t we just food, or they can actually get trapped in it.
increase our plastic recycling?” but no, not One hundred thousand animals in the sea are
every plastic product is recyclable. Take killed every year because of plastic.
cardboard coffee cups for example, they
Santo Agostinho should start using
have a waterproof plastic lining that makes biodegradable plastic cups as it should be a
recycling difficult. Brazil produces around sustainable institution. They’re expensive but
100 million tonnes of plastic cups every year their damage to the environment is way lower
and most of it is discarded incorrectly and than normal plastic cups because they don’t
not recycled. last long. The school should also start selling
Specialists think that by 2050 the amount
metal cups for a lower price in the cafeteria
of plastic in the oceans is going to surpass so people could buy it and lower their plastic
the amount of fish. Plastic is also a huge waste.
problem for animals, as it’s commonly
Source: www.ourworldindata.org/plastic-
pollution
BERNARDO CRUZ
Amongst all alternatives to waste
replaced by recyclable/non-recyclable
storage in landfills, such as incineration, trash cans, the availability of plastic cups
pyrolysis and gasification, recycling – even has been limited, and, most importantly, in
though limited to recyclable products – association with Asmare, a recycling facility
seems to be one of the smartest solutions in Belo Horizonte, a “recycling spot” has
to be implemented in Brazil, given that it is been implemented in the schoolyard.
one of the few that doesn’t depend on the
The possibilities offered by our school are
initiative coming from the state or big many; however, without conscientization
private corporations; instead, it mostly and mobilization, they don’t guarantee that
relies on the mobilization of citizens, the we’re actually positively impacting the
ones who really hold the power in a environment. If you take a close look at the
democratic society. recyclable bins, you’ll often notice the
Switching the context from a complex
presence of unrecyclable materials, which
and organized society to a university or makes the whole procedure ineffective.
school, students become the promoters of Besides that, if you check the amount of
future changes, by means of sharing ideas waste discarded in the recycling spot on
with the staff (head teachers, Fridays – the day in which the trash is
coordinators and the principal) and collected by Asmare representatives – you’ll
discussing the possibility of implementing realize that many more students could be
more sustainable practices within the contributing to the cause.
institution.
As students at Colégio Santo Agostinho,
Fortunately, there are many accessible
alternatives to increase the number of
we were fortunate to witness, in recent people recycling that can be implemented
years, an extensive debate about in our school. In a study conducted by the
sustainability suggested by the teachers University of California which tested the
themselves. Since then, in agreement with effectiveness of strategies to make people
the school’s direction, many policies have use less electric energy at home, scientists
changed: the regular bins have been concluded that, because humans are
RECYCLING: THE POWER OF AN ACTIVE
COMMUNITY FOR A GREENER FUTURE