STEP 1
I felt outraged when I walked in my neighborhood and saw glass bottles of beer everywhere left by young people who had fun on Saturday night, not caring about polluting.
STEP 2
I decided to write a message in my neighborhood’s Facebook group, and three people agreed with it. Two of them live near my home, while one moved last year to Paris yet wanted to give her contribution.
STEP 3
First of all, we got informed about the features of glass material. We visited websites on glass recycling and its impact on Earth. Then, we met every Sunday morning for a month to count how many bottles were left around the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the person in Paris decided to start a blog where she would tell everything about our action.
STEP 4
Our goal was to:
S Make youngsters who spend their time on Saturday night in the neighborhood put the empty bottles in the trash.
M Engage at least 3 bars from the neighborhood.
A Reduce the number of bottles left around the neighborhood by 30%.
R Recycling is fundamental for the planet, and glass bottles left around may be very dangerous for children and pets.
T By 4 months.
STEP 5
We visited all the bars in the neighborhood selling drinks and asked them if they knew about this phenomenon. Then, with the help of the person in Paris, we researched the possible solutions to it, and based on what we found out, we organized a brainstorming session online to collect ideas from all the group members. In the end, we decided to create ad hoc kits to distribute to bars, each containing a specific trash container and a poster to raise awareness about the issue.
STEP 6
According to our personal skills, we decided that every group member would be responsible for a specific task. We planned a budget necessary for creating the trash bins and the posters and realized we could afford it, so we collected the money. Lastly, we constructed the trash bins, while the person in Paris designed the poster. Once we finished the containers and printed the posters we were ready – we took action! Five bars in the neighborhood accepted both the kits and the challenge to make clients recycle more.
STEP 7
We agreed on having 3 weeks of observation and analysis by taking photos of the streets after each weekend, and on the fourth, we compared the photos. We noticed a lot fewer bottles left around the neighborhood, and on the fourth Sunday, we walked to count the glass bottles, and… We did it! We have halved the number!
STEP 8
On the following Saturday night, we went out and made a tour of all the bars to thank them with a special gadget – a lovely sticker to stick to their window our member from Paris had designed – and had fun together!
