A clean-up campaign or “We’re saving the world”

What do schoolchildren do on a Friday afternoon equipped with gloves and tongs? They are saving the world, as one pupil enthusiastically put it. Or to put it rationally: They go litter picking. Last Friday, children from the Karl Leisner School’s after-school programme had an appointment with Florian Gaisrucker, Innovation Manager at the TransRegINT project. As part of the “Sustainable Community” action week organised by DialogPunkt Kleve, they wanted to clear the area around their school in Kleve’s Südstadt district of trash.

Before setting off, Florian discussed with the group of 15 children why it is so important to keep the earth clean. He asked the group what kind of waste they expected to encounter, explained the waste cycle and used simple examples to illustrate why it needs to be broken. One sentence was memorised by everyone: “If the environment is doing well, then we are doing well too.”

The children spent around two hours in the neighbourhood of their school and were gripped by ambition. Countless cigarette butts and pieces of chocolate bar wrappers lined their path. But bottles, individual shoes and other everyday objects such as sunglasses also found their way into their rubbish bags.

“Why do so many people throw their rubbish next to the litter bin?”

The children were particularly surprised at the amount of waste they had collected at the end of their two-hour tour. They hadn’t expected that: Several large bin bags full of rubbish. One pupil spontaneously exclaimed: “Why is there so much rubbish on our way to school?” “Why do so many people throw their rubbish next to the litter bin?” asked another child. “These are questions that make us sad, but at the same time give us reason for hope,” reflects Florian. “Because the children see and learn from activities like today’s that their actions can make a difference.” On their route, the children were approached by enthusiastic walkers who were happy about the clean-up campaign in their neighbourhood.

The children were also happy at the end of the rubbish collection campaign: Florian handed out delicious ice cream. The packaging? Exemplary – they were put in the rubbish bin and the boxes were taken home for upcycling projects.

Further information

Click here for the other events planned at DialogPunkt until 28 June 2024. Maybe we’ll see you there?

We would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and look forward to many more exciting and informative events at DialogPunkt Kleve.