Through a partnership between AMOR (Mozambican Association of Recycling) and the Millennium BIM bank the program “School Recycles, School Wins!” was developed. This is an extension of the project “A Clean City for Me” of Millennium BIM and has the goal to implement the education on and management of recyclable waste within schools in Mozambique. At 10 schools in Maputo (mainly in the KaMphumo district) and 4 schools in Vilankulo, ecopoints were constructed. The schools are used as a mechanism through which socio-environmental change is promoted and explained to the pupils and their community. The objective is to raise awareness within the school community about the problems of solid waste in the cities and the consequences of it on urban sanitation, ecosystems (beaches, rivers, mangroves) and animals. Not only children are reached through this project, but the entire community is involved (parents, guardians, and neighbours of the school). To encourage the school to collect as much recyclables as possible, AMOR created a small contest named Green Points. In this contest the collected recyclables are weighed on a weekly basis and for every kilogram of recyclables, the school scores 1 Green Point. The school that scores the highest number of Green Points will be awarded with equipment that the particular school needs (e.g. notebooks, books, furniture, etc.). It should be noted that the idea of the program is not to encourage the production of waste, but to reduce the amount of waste and rubbish, as parents, teachers and the surrounding community are able to separate and dispose their waste using the bins of the ecopoints at schools. To make the program more sustainable, AMOR established environmental clubs in every participating school. These clubs are composed by a selected group of pupils who are the leading members of the clubs within school, but also in the community where they live. They spread the word about environmental education and the necessity and importance of taking care of the waste we produce. So through this project waste in and around schools and in the arteries of the city is reduced, information on environmental education is disseminated, and, especially, the importance of preservation and conservation of the environment for the safety of the current and next generation is emphasized.
