Monday, August 22, 2022

Frej, Swedish Team. My Week.

 Monday 

Today a new group of kids started their summer camp where I am working as a leader. I will teach them how to sail a boat without an engine. 
As always I am cycling to work instead of taking the bus.

Tuesday 
Today I went to my job. In the afternoon I harvested elderflowers to make syrup because I want to make use of the wild growing plants

Wednesday 
Today I cycled to my summer job again, and cycled home and ate vegetarian dinner. And in the evening I cycled to my kayak training. 

Thursday 
Today I (yeah you guessed right) cycled to my summer job, cycled home and ate a vegetarian dinner. And then I picked red currants to make a delicious crumble pie.

Friday 
Today I cycled to my summer job, cycled home and made a pie from the red currants and drank my sirup with my family.

Friday, August 19, 2022

Linus, Swedish team. Three things I did at my country house.

 1. I threw away all rotten and old food in a compost so it can break down into dirt.



2. In the evenings I pull out any cable that I know is taking electricity when I’m not using it.



3. I went to a recycling station to sort out all things and materials I’m not using anymore so they can be produced into something new.



Thursday, August 18, 2022

Nova, Swedish team

 Hi! 

I love sowing, so I like to reuse old pieces of fabric. For example, here I made a tote bag out of a sheet that was to small for any of our beds. We can also use this for shopping instead of plastic bags, so it’s a win win!




Monday, August 15, 2022

Sara,Portuguese Team

 Hello everyone!

In my house, when we happen to take wrong photocopies, instead of throwing them in the trash, we, for example, use them for drafts.
Bye bye! 
Sara 

 Hiii.

Instead of buying detergent packets we can buy a bar of soap to wash the dishes, it's much more ecological.

 Hiii.

So, I had some empty shampoos so I thought of a way to use them. Make small holes in them, put some soil in them and plant flowers. You can also paint the shampoo box to make it prettier.

 Hello.

Now that it is summer and many people go to the beach and the river, we should be careful with rubbish. Sometimes, as the rubbish bins are far away, people don't want to go there and throw their rubbish on the ground, which is very wrong. We must keep our rubbish and then throw it in the bins 

Portuguese Team

 Today when i went to the beach, instead of spending money on a plastic bottle, i brought my own bottle from home.





Sara,Portuguese Team

 Hello everyone! In my house, when we have leftover candles, we melt the leftovers and form new candles.

Bye!
Sara

 Today, instead of throwing a t-shirt away i sewed it. It is a way to reduce the production of new clothes, energy expenditure and chemical products. This way we can improve the planet!

Portuguese Team

 Hello everyone! 

In my house we reuse the paper bags that we bring the bread in. My mum , sometimes when she makes fried things she uses those bags to absorb the oil that the food pours out, instead of using the napkins she uses the bag. It's a way of reusing those bags. Another way to reuse bags, which is the one we use most in my house, is to use them to put rubbish in, for example, instead of using small plastic bags we use paper ones.
Bye!! 

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Sara,Portugal

 

Hello everyone!
 In my house, when I need to use straws, I usually use reusable metal ones, it's a way to reduce waste, although I rarely use straws because I usually buy drinks in big bottles which I then serve in a glass. When the bottles are plastic, I sometimes reuse them, but most of the time, I just put them in the Ecopoint. 
Here's a photo of the straws I use.

Bye!!
Sara 



Maria,Portugal






 "I needed a hair brush, so instead of buying a plastic one i bought a bamboo one. "

Maria

Monday, August 8, 2022

Portuguese Team

 "Hello everyone.

With this hot weather, there are many fires, and because of this many trees die. We could replant trees. A few years ago I went with my school to the mountain to plant oak trees, to help reforest."







7th August Giorgia’s activity 3 – Italian team

 7th August

Giorgia’s activity 3 – Italian team


Hi everyone, today as I was brushing my teeth I decided not to waste more water than necessary and

turned it off when I didn't need it. We can do this in many situations: while cooking, while having a shower,

or while washing the dishes: all these little actions to save water may look like small things, but on the long

run and with consistency they have a big impact on our water consumption, which is crucial to the wellness

of the earth and ourselves. Giorgia- Italy




6th August Michelle – Italian team

 

6th August

Michelle – Italian team

 

Good evening! Today's step to reduce the pollution in our planet is quite a simple one, and many people already do it without thinking much of it.

I'm talking about using glass plates while laying the table, and glass bottles to store water instead of the common plastic ones.

It's a small but important thing to do, and it's also much more convenient. Glass is way more healthy and eco-friendly, and can be reused hundreds of times without losing its purity and quality, whereas plastic has to be thrown away after one single use.

Plastic takes years to decompose and this waste some people unconsciously do is very harmful to the environment. Wash your dishes, people!




5th August Simone – Italian Team

 

5th August

Simone – Italian Team

Many times, like today, when I am out and about in the town where I live, I look around and see a lot of plastic bags on the ground. So these days I decided to start replacing the plastic bags with cloth bags. A few days ago my mum and I went to a store near our house that sells many items and we bought five cloth bags, so that, every time we go shopping, we can use these instead of plastic bags to help the environment. In one year it is estimated that about 5 billion plastic bags are used,  less than 1% is recycled. Plastic bags are thrown away or reused very few times, without thinking about the irreparable damage they cause to the ecosystem. Plastic shopping bags take more than 1,000 years to disappear from the planet. Plastic bags account for 80 percent of the plastic that pollutes seas and water flows. Forecasts say that at these rates of consumption and without widespread conscious choices, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. In conclusion, cloth bags should be preferred, which are easy to use, collapsible and space-saving.






4th August Emanuele – Italian Team

 

4th August

Emanuele – Italian Team

 

Hi there! These days I am on holiday with my family in Courmayeur, Valle d’Aosta, surrounded by an amazing natural landscape: lakes, trees, mountains, valleys. To move around and reach far places we thought about an eco-friendly solution, so we decided to rent an electric car in order not to pollute with fuel, petrol or diesel. Using electric vehicles implies lots of benefits: cleaner environment, lower running costs, renewable electricity tariffs, free parking, reduced noise pollution. It was a totally positive experience. I strongly recommend the use of electric cars.








Saturday, August 6, 2022

3rd August Rebecca – Italian Team

 


3rd August

Rebecca – Italian Team

Hello everyone! In relation to zero waste challenge, my idea is to propose “zero waste snacks” to eat in these hot summer days. Common snacks, full of added sugars, are often bad for our health and their plastic packaging  is also dangerous for the environment. Lots of snacks are sold in single use plastic bags and contain unealthy ingredients. By making homemade snacks, or eating km zero products, you will make healthy choices and you will help the planet. What could be better than that? Personally I recommend to eat an apple, a peach, some apricots, an orange or a banana as “a zero waste snack”, whan you are hungry during the day. These snacks are super healthy and totally tasty. You can get them at the market or at the greengrocer’s. They are in nature’s perfect packaging!






 


2nd August Vincenzo – Italian team

 


2nd August

Vincenzo – Italian team

Sometimes drinking tap water isn’t safe, that’s why some households buy hundreds of plastic bottles every

year. Plastic bottles are the number one cause of river pollution in Europe.

My family has always been mindful of these problematics and we have decided to put an end to this useless

waste.

We had to find a solution that wouldn’t jeopardize our health.

That’s why I decided to buy a water purifying pitcher that can purify tap water and reduce plastic








1st August Michelle – Italian team

 1st August

Michelle – Italian team


Hello everyone! Today, I'd like to share with you something me and my mother do on regular basis to

safeguard the environment.

When we go grocery shopping, we don't use plastic bags to transport our food from the store to our house.

It may look like an insignificant thing to do, but those apparently harmless bags are lethal weapons for

marine creatures that might mistake them for food or get stuck in the plastic while swimming peacefully.

This is why we, instead, use cloth bags! We bring them to the store, buy the food and then take them home

without throwing them out. Sadly, reusing plastic bags is really hard since they tend to break easily. We

suggest you try our method, too!





Sunday, July 31, 2022

Levi (Hungary)

Hi every one,

Today I’d like to tell you about the drought in Hungary.

In the last few days, I read a very interesting article. It was about Lake Balaton’s water level. It said, water level evaporates two centimeters every day!!

This was very shocking for me and I realized I have to stop wasting water. I decided to buy a huge barrel to collect rain for watering the garden or anything else. I hope it will be useful for the environment!

I think it will look like this:



Gyopár (Hungary)

Second hand party

Hi Challengers,
My favorite zero waste activity is our second hand party with our friends. We organise it twice a year. We can find "new" clothes and other things and we also share our used things with others. It's a big fun to meet each other and share.





Saturday, July 30, 2022

Dalma (Hungary)

I wanted to plant an oleander stem so it can grow roots, but I couldn’t find a good, small pot to use.  Instead of buying one, I cut a plastic water bottle in half.  I made some small holes in the bottom for water to escape.



Dalma (Hungary)

I noticed that a lot of water is wasted in the shower at the beginning, while I am waiting for the water to turn warm.  I simply put the bucket under the tap to collect it.  This can be used to water the plants or to use it to clean the floor.



Friday, July 29, 2022

Réka teacher (Hungary)

I had a ’story’ today and I have realised that it is connected to our zero waste challenge. So I decided to write it down for you.

A friend of mine left her glasses at my grandparents’ cottage at Lake Balaton when they visited us there. She asked me to send them by post. She could not come back for them, the place was far away, they did not have time to come back for the glasses. But the expensive glasses were important for her. So we agreed that I send them to her by post.

Glasses are very fragile so we were thinking a lot how to put them save into a kind of box. I took a box of peach juice. I cut one of its ends. I cleaned it inside. I put some really old newspapers to be well-lined. After placing the glasses safely into it I closed the box. Finally I wrapped it into a brownish paper originated from my grandparents’ things I found in one of their cupboards. So I could write the address on it legibly.

I think I used up a lot of old things sensibly instead of buying something new at the post.



Thursday, July 28, 2022

 Juli (Hungary)

In June we took part in the 3rd TISZA-LAKE competition, which lasted for 5 days. The competition began with shipbuilding. We built the ships ourselves from recycled materials and waste bottles. The kids were travelling on the built boat, the adults were collecting trash with canoes.

At the beginning of the first day, we didn't have any trash, so we paddled. Then we selected the waste, trampled it and packed it into bags grouped by types.

14 teams started in the race and we collected more than 1,500 bags of garbage, which are approx. 7 tons.

The name of our team was the „Tiszai Jak” and we collected almost 300 bags of garbage, with which we won the competition in front of such strong teams as the Erste bank or the Decathlon team.

Plastic Cup (official information)

The waste pollution on river Tisza is a huge environmental problem! The PLASTIC Cup, this non-profit, non-governmental initiative, was created to eliminate this problem. This environmental action contributes to clean river Tisza by organizing events, waste collection campaigns spanning several months, team-building activities, exhibitions and professional discussions throughout the year.

Our three main goals: conservation of living waters, water sports promotion (kayaking, canoeing) and community building.

The key to the success of Plastic Cup is that it’s able to transform a difficult and dangerous exercise, like collecting trash, into a fun and inspiring team building exercise, into the adventure of a lifetime.

Plastic Cup is the first, and as far as we know only, initiative in the world that looks to fight pollution by using pollutants.

The results in numbers:

4068 DISCOVERED HEAVILY POLLUTED COASTAL AREAS

218 t REMOVED POLLUTANTS FROM THE RIVER TISZA

147 BOATS OF WASTE HAVE BEEN BUILT

https://petkupa.hu/eng/








Wednesday, July 27, 2022

 

Bence (Hungary)

This week I was at a folk camp in Transylvania (Romania) with my family and there was a water shortage.

It was hard living with very little water. But we learned how to brush our teeth and have a shower with only a small amount.

It’s hard to imagine that lots of people around the world have to live in conditions like this.

Overall this was very interesting and concerning experience and it left a question in me: Do we really need to use as much water as we use normally?





Tuesday, July 26, 2022

 

Julcsi (Hungary)

Hi everyone,

Today this is how I did the zero waste challenge:

I wanted to draw on 100 % recycled paper, so I went to the shop by
bicycle and I bought some paper. It was the same as the normal one and I
did NOT hurt the environment in fact I reused it. I also painted old
clothespins my mother used to hang out wet clothes, and they became happy clips with different colours that I can use to fix memos at my desk.

The next day I reused an old bed sheet to make a dress for a doll as a
present for my cousin. It felt really good because if I don’t use it,
it would have gone to the trash! You should try this zero waste
challenge too.

Julcsi




Monday, July 25, 2022

 

Balint (Hungary)

Hello everyone,

My name is Bálint Villányi and I'd like to report on my zero waste challenge during my vacation.

If you are at a vacation, you can produce a lot of trash, what you don't want. We would like to avoid so many needless trashes, so we used only glass bottles, and we weren't buy new bottles, if it was possible.

Finally we collected the trash selectively.



Turkish Team-Eylül's Post

 Hello. My name is Eylül. I'm a student at İsmail Demir Middle School, class 7/E. I'll present the zero waste project I designed. I wove from old plastic bags with the help from my dad and I designed this project with some wool rope. I made carpets and wool handbags. Hope you liked it. Goodbye.




Turkish Team-Eliz Ada's toys..



First we cut the head of a colored sock long to use it as a body. Then we cut the closed part of the piece we cut vertically and sew the edges to make it leg shape. Then we stuff cottan inside and sew the sleeve part inwards to make the sleeves. With this process the baby's body part is finished. Then we cut the upper part of a white sock in the some way and put cotton inside and sew the bottom to make it round. To make the eyes we sew the two beads side by side on the white sock that we made the head. We also make the mouth with rope. At the en of the process sofar we have two different parts. Head and body. When we put these two pieces together the baby is complete. Finnaly, we cut the head of a different sock and make a beret for the baby




 

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Italian Team-Simone's experience 2

 

Simone’s second expeience

Hi, these days I started using the bicycle to move instead of using the car. Many times I asked my parents to accompany me to nearby places by car, but after I realized that by doing so I would only damage the environment, I started using my bike to move from one place to another. Moving around by bike, you avoid the use of cars, motorcycles, buses, reducing polluting gas emissions. In addition, traffic is streamlined and there are shorter journeys. There are also electric bicycles or even called pedal assisted bikes with which you can move without making a lot of physical effort. Using the bicycle means moving without polluting, respecting the environment. The bicycle provides us with a means to explore the world, without emitting pollutants into the atmosphere. For those who live in urban centers, the bicycle is perfect for moving from one part of the city to another, without risking ending up in traffic. Not only does the bike not emit C02, but it is also a silent vehicle, helping to reduce noise pollution. The bicycle is also good economically: as well as being a very  economical vehicle, it does not need much money for maintenance.






Italian Team-Brunella's experience

 

Brunella’s experience

Hi everyone! Today for the zero waste challenge I propose local markets. I decided to buy food in local markets, as they are good for the environment and local economy. Farmer’s markets are fantastic places for sustainable shopping. Going there I help local families and tackle the environmental costs of food production because the food is locally grown, it is fresh and seasonal. All the products of the local markets are fresh and locally grown, reducing the need for plastic packaging and C02 emissions involved in transportation. Local food also means fresher food. The taste has no equals, moreover local products don’t have to travel half way across the world to reach your plate. Also, for the environment, it’s important to eat seasonal products as much as possible.






Italian Team-Simone's experience

 

Simone’s experience

Hi, these days I have decided to start using a steel bottle instead of wasting a lot of plastic water bottles. A few days ago together with my friends we went on a hike near a river and I was very sorry that it was full of plastic bottles. Then after this experience I bought steel bottles to avoid polluting the environment. Steel thermal water bottles are among the most important eco-sustainable products currently. A thermal steel bottle can really make a difference: the more they increase, the smaller the quantities of plastic bottles and bottles that are so harmful to the Earth, especially to the seas. Steel is 100% recyclable. The main reason so many people buy water bottles is definitely the Environmental Issue. Water bottles contribute to the reduction of pollution caused by plastic bottles: 80% of the waste in the sea consists of plastic, of which 49% of disposable plastic, just the type of the bottles! Stop using plastic items is the only way to reduce pollution and in this way water bottles can really make a difference!







Italian Team-Emanuele’s experience.

 

Emanuele’s experience

 Hi everyone! My name is Emanuele and today I want to talk about my experience in the ecology field, a world that especially now involves us all.  As human beings, we live inside an ecosystem which is ruled by nature’s laws and we’re all responsible of what happens to our planet everyday.  Sometimes we forget that our gestures can really make a change and that’s why we should be aware of the environment and its needs.  We’re all in a world full of resources so that’s probably why we take for granted what our Earth provides for us. This week I have had the opportunity to spend some time with a group of friends from different countries and I have seen how they acted to contrast the various environmental problems. When we go to the beach, we always take time to take away some rubbish. When we  throw away stuff we always make sure to separate the paper from the plastic, the glass from the organic and etc. We have also learned to prioritise the technology over paper to reduce the waste and to preserve the trees that are important for the air we breathe and the temperature. In my opinion those small actions can make a big change if we all put effort into it.





Italian Team-Giorgia’s activity


 

Italian Team-Giorgia’s activity

 

1st July

Giorgia’s activity

Good morning! for today's action for the environment, I propose turning off he lights as much as we can when we don't need them. Saving as much energy as possible helps a lot to reduce our carbon footprint, and our atmosphere will thank us! - Giorgia, Italy


Italian Team-Giorgia’s activity

 


2nd July

Giorgia’s activity 2

Hello everyone, today's action to save energy was keeping the air conditioner at low power and not leaving it on all day. Many people don't realize how high the impact of air conditioners is on the environment, as they consume a ton of energy and pollute the air, and thus contribute to climate change, creating a vicious cycle. It's better to keep it low and use fans or dehumidifiers, as they have much lower impact and are better for our health as well! - Giorgia, Italy




Italian Team-Chiara’s activity

 



3rd July

Chiara’s activity

Hi!  These days, instead of using the car, I'm moving around by bike. I went to the bakery to buy some bread, I went out with a friend of mine and last I did one of my favorite things: watching the sunset while I was riding  my bike. Bye!! Chiara -Italy

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Turkish Team-Melis's post- an eco-friendly bag



We used a shopping bag that we converted from an old umbrella that my grandmother and I made during the summer vacation.

                                    











 

Turkish Team-Emirhan's video


 

Monday, July 18, 2022

Frej, Swedish Team. My Week.

  Monday  Today a new group of kids started their summer camp where I am working as a leader. I will teach them how to sail a boat without a...