Students make toys with recycled materials, Passo Funo, Brazil

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Students in the second year of elementary school at Collegio Notre Dame Aparecida studied solid residues, or trash.  They learned that everything that we produce, use in our houses, schools, hospitals, industry, and agriculture, after it is discarded, is considered “residue”.  Besides this, students learned that this residue can be transformed into new, useful products.  This study included the 4 Rs of Sustainability – Reuse, Recycle, Reduce and Re-think.  The program included consideration about the increasing amount of residues we produce every day in Brazil and in the world, the time necessary for decomposition of some materials, and the damage of inadequate discarding of  rubbish on the environment.

After the theorical studies, the students were challenged to consider new usages for some materials that would be thrown out as rubbish.  Using their creativity, students transformed bottles into robots, a Tetra Pack pocket into a puppet, yogurt containers into teapots, PET bottles into airplanes and other toys. Doing these things, students are also reflecting about their attitudes.