‘Don’t just throw it away, throw it into the Eco-bin!’, this is the motto for the University of Namibia students and lectures in the Change Project Team as they embark on a unique waste management project. From used plastic bottles, wires and iron bars the team has created the eco-bin plastic waste refuse collector. These bins store used plastic bottles for upcycling.
Christina Utete, a science lecturer at the University of Namibia who is one of the Capacity building programme’s participants and team leader of the Change Project spoke about what motivated the project idea:
“There is a lot of plastic bottle waste in our town, plastic is non-biodegradable and therefore causes a threat to environmental health and sustainability. These bottles have also become an eyesore as they make the town dirty”
The eco-bins which are of different creative designs are placed at various points on the campus to collect used plastic bottles. Pencil cases, flower containers and many other products are then created from the recovered waste plastic bottles. To encourage innovation and creativity, the Change Project team has introduced a competition for staff and students to design their own plastic bottle products. Christina added:
“The upcycling of plastic bottles educates people on how to reduce litter for a clean environment while also awakening their creativity”
To complement the eco-bin project on waste management the University of Namibia is also implementing a Biosphere Concept Change Project for conservation and sustainability of the animal species natural environment. This project aims to make visible the value of natural resource management as most people seem unaware of the dangers of environmental degradation. A school and a conservation park have been identified to be used in biosphere project implementation.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is now being incorporated into the institutions’ course outline in Science, Environmental Education, Geography and Mathematics.
Lecturers and students have welcomed the ESD effort which spills over to the Rundu and Namibia community at large through the distribution of posters and fliers, awareness workshops and out-reach programmes.
A well elaborate change project with a clear transformative change anchored on ESD
I’d love to hear more of the biosphere change project for conservation and sustainability of animal species natural environment. What are project’s activities to achieve this end? A park has been identified for this project, will the park serve as a gene bank for diverse animal life or will it be sustainably managed to encourage more animal species?
The Eco project is exciting . I wish there was more information on the biosphere concept for us to comment especially bearing in mind the animal-human conflict.
I like the concept of using eco bins to collect used plastic bottles as one way of cleaning the environment and developing creative skill in learners but I need more clarification on biosphere project where you say there will be conservation and sustainability of animal species and how this is related to environmental degradation
O soglan “Não jogue fora, jogue na eco – lixeira” já nos leva a pensar no ambiente e é uma boa prática que deve ser expandida há muitos outros campus da nossa mãe África por impactar nos saberes da comunidade académica como um todo. Parabéns