How to create an eco-island?

The children from school “Ivan Vazov” and school “Hristo Botev” in Mezdra and from school “Saint Kliment Ohridski” in village Zverino, learned what is composting; how to examine more carefully the materials which they consume in their daily life, before they throw them away and to put into practice ideas for their reuse in other activities; how to harness the forces of nature and produce energy from wind, water, sea waves and ground; what kind of materials to use, so their homes are more ecological – in terms of the used resources and the need for energy and water for life in them. Although the adolescents in these towns and villages aren’t exposed to the heavy traffic and pressure of the vehicles as it is in the big cities, they also discussed sustainable ways of transportation and our responsibility as consumers of resources and creators of waste.

The students proposed their own models of a perfect island, the living on which can be organized according to the described principles of sustainable development. Nearly 60 children from the three schools in Mezdra municipality participated in the training and presented their team-developed models, and in this way they not only enriched their understanding about how our life can be more harmonious with the natural laws and resources, but also gained confidence in the development and presentation of their idea for an eco-island. The training classes were conducted within the frames of project “Joined actions for increasing of the knowledge and activating of the local authorities and communities for reaction to and adaptation to the climate changes”, funded within the frames of the Program for support of the NGO’s in Bulgaria by the financial mechanism of the European economic area 2009 – 2014.

During the last day before the Easter holidays our team organized a one-day training for 15 adolescents from tenth and eleventh grade of high school “N.Y. Vapzarov” in the town of Slivnitza, from the project “The climate depends on us”, financed with the support of Confederation Switzerland through the Fund for reforms, connected with the participation of the civil society. The training was focused on the examination of the practices for separate collecting of the waste in the city. After the theoretical part and passing through a training how to conduct an interview with citizens, the adolescents completed more than 20 surveys, which aimed at improving the knowledge on to what extent the people are informed and collect and throw their waste separately; what are the reasons not to do it and would they make some small changes in their way of shopping and consumption, so that they decrease their environmental footprint of the waste, produced in their daily activities..

The adolescents researched how and what is collected in the colored containers in the town. Unfortunately like in other places, the findings showed that the content of the containers does not coincide with their purpose. A few of the containers contained organic waste and soil – obviously result of the works on preparation of the house gardens. However as a whole, the utilization of the containers according to their purpose in Slivnica was better than the observations made during the previous week by students in Varshetz