I Wish I’d
Thought of That!
By Jennifer Knowles
taking care of the environment, but also for giving them
the opportunity to go on an excursion. The best part is,
the success of this project has spread to a class of students in Brod and the center for special needs individuals.
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Since arriving at site last year, it had become my goal to
do an environmental project at some point during my
two year service. This fall, that goal came to fruition. I
just wish it had been my idea.
Over the summer, I had the pleasure of meeting a young
woman named Vesna Markoska on a visit to the nearby
town of Makedonski Brod. As a long time environmentalist, she had made many attempts to start a variety
of projects without success. When she approached me
with the idea of getting my students involved in recycling plastic bottles, I was psyched! But… why would elementary students ever want to start picking up smelly,
dirty, old bottles that they were so accustomed to throwing away? Well, only someone as creative as Vesna could
have come up with the incentive of using the money we
got from selling the bottles to the recycling company for
an excursion.
It was a done deal! In the span of a week, the students
organized themselves and collected enough bottles
from within the village to fill two gigantic jumbo bags.
Over the course of another month, they were able to fill
another jumbo bag that had been placed at the school.
With the biggest challenge having been finding a way
to transport full bags, at present we have only been able
to sell one bag of bottles, for which we received 700 denars. In addition, we have collected an estimated 180
kilos of plastic, much of which is still waiting to be sold.
In order to keep student interest high, I have put into
place monthly class contests for who can collect the most
plastic bottles, and placed reminder posters around the
school. The fifth graders have won twice in a row with
collections numbering in the 300s. With luck, this will
keep students motivated through May, while in April we
will hopefully organize a clean-up.
Although I wish that I could claim this project as my
own, I know that it would not have been as successful
even if I were able to accomplish it all on my own. So I
thank Vesna for not only teaching my students about
Above: Learning about the recycling process.
Below: A student collecting plastic bottles.