news

Educational institutions of Latvia regularly organise environmental education activities, contests and holds guest lectures, thus, teaching students to conserve nature, to sort waste and to save resources. As a result, children and teenagers are the most educated and well-informed part of society that are also urging their families to be environmentally friendlier in everyday life, and they are substantially changing environmental awareness and actions of all society. As teachers have noticed, then children see waste sorting as a normal and self-evident part of everyday life.

To include even larger part of society to collect secondary raw materials, the “Zaļā josta” in collaboration with the JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” organises a contest “Tīrai Latvijai!” and invites students of educational institution of all Latvia to collect waste paper and used batteries. The amount of secondary raw materials that are delivered for recycling is growing from year to year.

Last year 1185.4 tonnes of waste paper and almost 28 tonnes of used batteries were delivered for recycling. It is 102 tonnes of waste paper and 5 tonnes of used batteries more than in previous school year. The results of contest are impressive and they create a substantial waste recycling flow on a national level.

Many educational institutions are participating in the secondary raw material contests year after year. One of them – Daugmale Elementary School, whose students in last year’s competition won the 10th place in waste paper collection and collected 12.3 tonnes of used paper. Žanete Ceļmalniece, teacher of Daugmale Elementary School, says that students are not actively collecting secondary raw materials, but they just don’t throw out waste that can be recycled. “We are not trying to win contests, because we don’t have that much of waste paper and batteries, all sheds and basements have already been cleaned. For children it is more important that their used paper, old magazine, newspaper, advertisement brochure or the old battery is delivered for recycling,” says Ž. Ceļmalniece.

With each year the environmental education is more actively integrated in the process of education. The Daugmale Elementary School has received the title of Eco-school, thus, environmental education activities are organised regularly. Corridors of school have boxes for used paper and plastics, each classroom have a box for used paper. Each year an erudition event is organised, which is dedicated to some theme, for example, the Eco-school’s theme of the year and to other issues that are related to environmental education. Two years on Art Day, students were creating objects from things that had already been used, for example, cars from plastic bottles or from old CD’s.  In the beginning of school year, first year students get to see “Zaļā josta” short films about secondary recycling of paper and batteries and about the importance of waste sorting.

One of the main goals of the JSC “Latvia's State Forests” is to educate society to respect the environment, thus, company is annually organising and are taking part in various environmental education projects that address Latvian society, starting from the little pre-school children, schoolchildren and to teachers and parents. The LVM together with the Pigman in various environmental education activities are encouraging citizens to respect Latvian forests, to sort waste and not litter in forest, to motivate children to be responsible about environment, to develop environmentally friendly thinking and contribute to the knowledge about the valuable and unnecessary in nature.