Students Build Villages (MMD) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) held an educational activity on waste management in the environment of Elementary School 01 Olak Alen Blitar. The activity is one of a series of programs by the MMD Team Group 57 in Olak Alen Village, Selorejo District, Blitar Regency.
This activity was attended by 62 students from grades 1 to 6 and was held with the theme: “Development of a Green, Child-Friendly School Environment Through the Upcycling Park Creation Program as a Step in Realizing Zero Waste” to increase awareness and creativity of elementary school children in managing unused waste to be useful.
The students participating in this activity collected bottle waste which was then made into ecobricks. Ecobricks themselves are a visionary innovation developed as a solution for processing plastic waste. Not only managing waste, elementary school students are also given the opportunity to learn to plant and care for plants made in ecobricks with types of plants including chicken feathers, money plants, snake plants, begonias, purslane, and red shoots.
The Principal of Elementary School 01 Olak Alen, Hadi Siswanto, expressed his gratitude to the MMD UB Team for involving students of Elementary School 01 Olak Alen in the creation of the Upcycling park. He supports this activity as a step in creating a comfortable school environment, and students get education about waste processing so that it can become useful items.
The activity which is a manifestation of Village SDGs point 12, namely “Responsible Consumption and Production” ensures sustainable consumption and production patterns globally, with a focus on resource efficiency, waste reduction, and promotion of environmentally friendly production practices. The creation of the Upcycling park has become a global trend in an effort to protect the environment by combining 2R, namely Reduce and Reuse. Upcycling is a program that adapts waste or used goods into goods that have added value. The core value of Character Education through this Upcycling park is habituation embedded in a culture of protecting the environment and living cleanly.
With this activity, UB Student Build Village Program is expected to provide a positive contribution in educating the younger generation to care more about the environment. National Children’s Day is the right momentum to teach important values to children, and this educational activity on the use of waste by MMD UB is a real step in creating a greener and more sustainable future. (zma/UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
