Associação de Pais e Professores da Escola de Educação Básica São José de Herval

Reciclar é Pensar no Futuro

Riparian vegetation is responsible for the natural protection of rivers against siltation, and it helps maintain the water quality to avoid diseases. In the Municipality of Herval d’Oeste, areas used as landfills cause the degradation of the riparian vegetation. Educational practices such as waste segregation and recycling programs were instituted in a local public school with very few resources.

These programs became a part of school life and an everyday extracurricular activity. With a BrazilFoundation Incentive Award, the organization carried out environmental education activities that involved students, parents, and teachers and included garbage collection, pollution containment in particularly affected areas, and the creation of a general atmosphere of cooperation between families, schools, and the community.

The project also provided training and facilitated the expansion of the school garden. This small experiment initiated within the school influenced the government to start carrying out garbage collection throughout the city, eventually reaching regional and state levels. The organization’s project was among Santa Catarina’s top three best environmental projects and its systematic methodology was published in Prêmio Gestão Escolar (School Management Award) in 2009.