Project Launch:

With a $500 grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program in 2010, the schools in and around Santiago, Ica, Peru undertook a community wide recycling project. The grant was used to purchase containers to store recyclables at the eight participating schools. Student recycling committees were formed at each school, and professors and student leaders gave presentations to all 4,076 children in the eight schools about environmental consciousness, trash separation, worm composting and the dangers of burning trash. Each month the schools turn their recycling into money by selling them to the local municipality, and the student recycling committees determine how to use the funds. Funds are often reinvested into the recycling program or used to throw end of the year parties at the schools. At the end of each year, the recycling committees elect a new committee for the next year so that the program can continue. Inside the schools the children learn the value of properly disposing of waste as well as gain a great sense of responsibility. In the community, the trash collection truck is no longer overflowing and the community generates less trash by recycling and properly disposing of organic waste.