Recycling on the Border 2

Recycling in border villages in the Tavush region is currently extremely limited; as a result, plastic and other trash often goes uncollected and liters the communities. When it is collected, the waste is often put into landfills or it is burned.

Following the success of the first Recycling on the Border project, The Paros Foundation has partnered with the Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities NGO, or ‘ISSD’ to implement their second recycling initiative in ten border villages in the Tavush region. The proposed project involves going to several schools and providing specially marked recycling bins for paper and plastic. The children will then be educated on the benefits of recycling and why it is important. Schools will be given three months to collect the recycling, when it will then be picked up and transferred to the proper recycling facilities.

Some new components have also been introduced. In order to provide incentive first and second place prizes will be given out to the schools who have collected the most paper and the most plastic at the end of the competition. The schools participating will also need to choose 5-10 students to be student ambassadors (depending on the size of the school). The model for the student ambassadors is as follows:

• One student from each grade, starting from the 4th grade
• The rest of the ambassadors will be from the older grades (whomever wants to participate up to 10 total ambassadors)
• The student ambassadors’ role will be to represent their school in the recycling competition. They will make sure the other students are recycling properly, the bags are tidy and prepared correctly, etc.

In addition to the recycling competition, older students from all the schools are invited to participate in another competition where they must develop a business idea involving recycling. Students can choose to work alone or with a team to come up with new ideas involving recycling and creating a business.  The ideas will be evaluated and the best one(s) will be given funding in the form of materials/equipment needed to start the business up to 1,000 USD. Every two weeks, students will meet with ISSD representatives to discuss both the general recycling competition and the business idea competition. Winners of this competition will be brought to Yerevan on an excursion to talk with other business people and develop their winning idea.