We Grow up Living Green -- Environmental Lesson in Helsinki School

The questions and answers seem to be irrelevant. It was a scene of a classroom in Aurinkolahti Comprehensive School in Helsinki, Finland, where the first grade pupils were having an environmental knowledge lesson on the ABC of garbage sorting, in order to recognize various types of waste and to sort them correctly.

During the lesson, there were 15 pupils sitting in circle on the floor and watching the teacher who continuously took things out of a plastic bag: glass bottles and jars, empty juice boxes, used batteries and a potato as well.

The pupils were full of curiosity. In the middle of the classroom, there were many pieces of colorful cardboard with different shapes, representing different kinds of garbage bins.

The pupils learned to sort out different kinds of waste via recycle bins' colors and shapes.

Whenever the teacher took a waste out of the plastic bag, the pupils energetically raised their hands and answered loudly where it should be put into. The lesson continued, and the teacher pulled out an empty semi-transparent plastic ice cream box, asking "How to deal with this one?"

The class turned into temporary silence. The teacher passed the box over to allow the children to touch it one by one, then said "This ice cream box is made of plastic. Do you know where plastic comes from?"

The children all shook their heads.

Then the teacher explained that "Plastic is in a sense similar to the gasoline used in cars, both are products refined from petroleum or crude oil. Petroleum is the most important source of energy. So plastics are sorted as energy waste."

"So should it be put into this one?" Leevi Tommila pointed to the orange energy bin and asked the teacher. The teacher did not answer directly, but offered a hint of thinking "Is it possible not to throw away directly? How about reuse it, as a way to reduce waste?"

"Oh, Right! My mother would use it as container to store blueberries, strawberries and raisins!" Otso Kinnunen raised his right hand.

"It might also be used as a toy mold when building a sand castle," another little boy said excitedly.

How can a plastic ice cream box be reused and recycled? The 15 children offered 15 different answers. The 45-minute lesson of environmental knowledge ended in jolly sounds of a lively debate.

For these children fresh with schooling, this is the first formal environmental education lesson in classroom. However, their environmental awareness enlightenment, in fact, has already begun from their daily lives.

Leevi Tommila said after the lesson that "Every time after drinking milk or juice at home, my father will ask me to rinse the box, press it flat, put empty boxes together and then send them to a specific recycling can in a trash cabin."

Otso Kinnunen also said proudly "I collect those empty bottles at home and bring them to nearby stores to get the deposits refunded. My mother said I could keep it as my pocket money."

Returning bottles to retailers and receiving the deposits in return is an environmental friendly practice in Finland.

Although the children may not be very clear why they should sort and separately recycle waste, the idea of "green lifestyle" has been with them in their daily lives since childhood.

Anu Kaila, the teacher who gave the lesson that day, is an environmental educational teacher from Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Center. She is currently teaching environmental course in Aurinkolahti Comprehensive School.

She said that environmental education for children had undoubtedly significant importance, adding that to help children to learn how to cherish the present living environment would certainly have far-reaching impact on their future lives.

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Center, a public service organization, was founded to better the living environment by decreasing the amount of waste and increasing people's environmental awareness.

The Environmental School of Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Center offers training and education to schools and people of all ages. The Environmental School offered last year 1,300 hours of lessons to some 25,000 participants, most of them being students.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2009)