Eco-Basket is a powerful activity for kids organized by Ambiente S.p.A. where the children compete in teams to throw in the correct basket the garbage provided, thus learning the principles of separate collection of trash for recycling materials correctly.
Objectives:
- To raise awareness on the importance of recycling materials correctly
- To provide information on how to divide and separate garbage
- To support correct collection of trash for recycling
Description:
The place is set by putting different basket for basketballs, each of them with a sticker with the colour and name of the different types of materials that can be recycled in the community, so that the children can learn by real examples. Items provided for collection include plastic bottles, cans, pieces of paper, plastic, and such.
The participants compete with the same amount of members in a team and in a given time set to collect as much garbage correctly by throwing it in their respective baskets scoring then points.
Each team gets rounds of 2 minutes to play, alternating. The first team starts, and the members of the team participate one by one in a row, alternating. The first person grabs one object from the box of garbage and has to throw it in the correct basket and make it fall in the related bin. Then the second person follows and does the same. Every time they do it correctly they get one point.
The team with more points win, but the prize for all is a special lunch break with sustainable food provided by local producers, thus encouraging also this aspect of environmental sustainability.
The initiative has a large participation and manages to promote sport (in this case basketball) and environmental sustainability at once.
Impact and Results:
The activity has a very good success and it’s fun and engaging for the young competitors taking part in it, which also learn a lot in the process. It manages to raise awareness on the importance of environmental sustainability and how we can play a role in it with everyday behaviours, and impacts kids but also parents which take part in the activity supporting their children.
Conclusions and Suggestions for Youth Workers:
The activity can be replicated and used also for different target groups representing an engaging way to discuss different ways of collecting and recycling materials in different communities and countries and introducing the topic.
It can be also a good way to use eventual garbage generated during an event/training activity for a learning purpose making sure it also gets correctly separated.
The activity can be adapted with using other sports (i.e. football, handball) provided that there is a clear different „goal” where to throw/shoot the provided materials. Make sure the materials are all safe to handle.
Debriefing questions, when a workshop is realized following this idea, could include:
– Was it difficult to decide where to throw the “ball”? Did you try to think more about where to throw it or you were worried about throwing it in the basket?
– Do you pay equal attention when you are dealing with garbage at home? And when you are in the streets?
– What could we improve when it comes to recycling, in our behaviors?
– Do you know any other concepts connected with avoiding creation of useless waste?
Link for reference: https://www.ambiente-spa.eu/da-ambiente-e-di-scena-leco-basket/
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