The Laboratory of Special Vocational Education of Agios Dimitrios and the 1st Gymnasium of Agios Dimitrios, as part of the European Waste Reduction Week 2023, invite all the schools of the southern suburbs of Athens to take part in their joint experiential actions of environmental awareness through Trash Art with the title “when Trash becomes Art”. With the support of the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios, the environmental non profit organization NoWaste21 and the directorate of secondary education in Athens, we aspire to create an awareness community based on waste sorting and recycling of packaging waste aiming in the transition to sustainable waste management. Our concept, therefore, goes beyond the conventional recycling of materials and involves repurposing discarded materials and waste packaging items (plastic bottles and caps, carton packages) into artistic creations (a cooperative Trash Art Sculpture made of a sculpture adorned with unique handmade butterflies coming from packaging waste) promoting both environmental awareness and creativity.
Those interested will have the opportunity to attend our joint actions and experiential activities which will take place at the special education school for the period 20/11/23–24/11/23 between 10.00 and 11.30am: a)creating collection points for packaging waste at the two collaborating schools b) creating a cooperative trash art sculpture made of the collected packaging waste of all students in the context of inclusive education c) participating in online presentations with an environmental orientation through the webex digital platform where participating schools can share and discuss about their waste reduction and recycling initiatives, d) organizing a musical event by the music band “pera plasmata” concerning their new project on Recycling, Circular Economy, and Composting and closing the session with artistic presentations by students and teachers around the completed sculpture.
At the same time, special collection bins will be placed in the partner schools for the collection of packaging waste with the support of No Waste 21 non profit organization while the actions will be promoted on social media in order to encourage all target groups to be informed and help reduce unnecessary consumption by focusing on giving a second life to existing products. Our collaborative actions will serve as a reminder of the issues facing our planet and aim to inspire the school community to change their lifestyle and reuse their items in new, creative ways. This will be the perfect way to show our love for Mother Earth.