Recycling - February 2013 - A new group... but the same commitment!

The Recycling and Sustainability service programme commenced in the second school semester. While me and Jenn will continue as co-leaders under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood, this semester the OSC Recycling and Sustainability service group will welcome many new members. As the service group will be starting afresh, it will be important to build a team spirit and establish good communication in order to accomplish our service goals. These goals in general include continuing the recycling material collection within the school campus in an efficient manner, increase the environmental sustainability of our school community by recycling used (and non-reusable) paper, cardboard, plastic and some metals, and finally, help develop a responsible and caring attitude towards use of resources within the school community by setting up trays for reusable paper in all rooms and thoroughly filtering recycling materials obtained for reusable items. We may add glass to the items we recycle in order to increase our school's eco-logical footprint.

The following students will be taking part in Recycling and Sustainability for Semester 2:

Anaath Jacob

Anna Schosser

Arnont Singsathitsuk

David Tchoumak

Januda Muthugama

Malaika Salman

Nisala Saheed

Nitika Singh

Sarocha Vitthayakrai

Varun Menon

The first session was held on 7^th of February. On the day, a previously planned introduction and many organized ice-breakers were carried out to start the activity in order to promote group bonding and community service spirit. Recycling material collection was initiated at 3:10 pm. There was also a small  reflection session in the end. By the end of the day, I developed new skills of addressing students with a formal introductory speech by overcoming the challenge of speaking in front of a group as a leader, and guiding the students by leading as a role model. However, I also realised that as the eldest students in the group other than myself and Jenn are 7th graders, it will be difficult to look for future recycling service leaders. Thus, this will be one of the challenges me, Jenn and Mr. Lockwood will be working towards.

Recycling sessions have been going well since and I am happy with the active participation of our current team. While new types of challenges have been coming up, we have tackled and overcome them efficiently in collaboration and they have not caused any hindrance to our weekly sessions.

Some photos of one of our sessions this month are given below:

Helping in packing recycling material before it is sent to the recycling center.

Some primary school children enjoyed learning about our service.

Ready to go!

This month was packed with service based action for me as well. As a leader, I (along with my co-leader) have been challenged both physically and mentally. Regular sessions are planned differently according to special requests or different scenarios. Thus, spontaneous planning, organization, and teams and task distribution test me mentally as a leader. At the same time, actively keeping track of all students, keeping records of collection before, during and after sessions, as well as participating in collection and cleaning tasks myself test me physically as a leader. All these tasks have enabled me to develop a very useful set of skills as a leader which will be useful to me in the distant future as well.

Now, I look forward to the final lap and hope it will be as exciting as this month!

Service - November - Recycling continues

Recycling was really successful this month. The Recycling and Sustainability group was able to collect recycling materials from all rooms and the collected materials were transported to the recycling centers every session. The team worked committedly and collaboratively to finish all tasks in a organized and timely manner. This month, me and Jenn as leaders implemented a new method of making teams and setting tasks. From our experience in the last two months, we knew that all students have become acquainted with each other. However, some specific student combinations are able to work more efficiently relative to other group combinations. Thus, we planned and initiated a group programme that specified student groups that would be sent to specific buildings for collection. This new plan was helpful as it reduced the time required for students to get organized into teams every session and it also helped students to become familiar with the buildings they visited. Hence, we used our earlier reflection on areas of growth to develop this new scheme which has made our teams' work more efficient.

I feel that this month has been one of the busiest and successful in terms of meeting our aim as a community service group. We were happy that there was no hindrance due to the weather this month and hope that the work continues in the same positive manner next month as well.

Below are photographs of our visit to our two main recycling centers. The initial photos have been taken at the recycling center on Pannipitiya road.

Unloading the collected recycling materials from the pickup truck.

Weighing a bin with paper.

Weighing another bin with paper.

Jenn and Hyung Suk wait while the paper and cardboard are weighed.

Photo of some of the cardboard outside the recycling center.

Jenn unloading cardboard.

Weighing cardboard.

Receiving money for sold paper and cardboard.

 The photographs below were taken at the Narahenpita Road recycling center.

Akila looks on as the recycling material is weighed.

Me standing next to bins full of paper for recycling.

I am now looking forward to recycling next month!

Recycling - October - Rainy sessions, soggy cardboard!

Recycling has been really busy this month. With challenges posed by the rainy weather, the group worked in a committed manner. The weather was also a hindrance as lots of cardboard left outside the recycling room got wet even though I personally took initiative to move the cardboard into the room during school lunch times. In addition, we were only able to visit the scrap dealers to sell collected recycling materials once out of four sessions due to the rainy weather. To resolve issues of cardboard loss due to rain, I am deciding of implementing a new plan (starting this November) which involves maintenance of materials left outside the room by the students in the Recycling and Sustainability group outside the service sessions held after school on Thursdays. This will require collaboration within the team and more perseverance from some regularly late or absent students.

 

Grade 10 and grade 11 students taking initiative at service.

A photograph from the sole visit to the scrap dealer this month.

 

I also developed a new and important skill of writing an article on the subject of "Recycling awareness for a sustainable OSC community" addressed to the school community. Due to the importance of the topic of recycling awareness, I am reiterating it below:

 

Recycling @ OSC

            Have you ever wondered what happens to the objects you dispose? Well, the useless and discarded waste is turned into a fresh and dynamic product! In this rapidly changing world, new discoveries and inventions in the field of science and technology have done the undoable. The three step technique called ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ is the rule that governs a new business of reincarnation – the reincarnation of non-biodegradable waste!

The Recycling and Sustainability Group @ The Overseas School of Colombo is a service group in the school’s Community Service program that collects and sorts used paper, cardboard, plastics and several metals into their respective material groups during weekly sessions held afterschool on Thursdays. These items are then sold to scrap dealers in the Battaramulla region. They, in turn, supply these to recycling agencies located in Sri Lanka, India and China.

             Often times, recycling of used materials is thought to be the only step towards creating an environmentally-friendly cyclic waste management system. Consequently, the rates of consumption of many items continue to increase. Thus, the OSC Recycling and Sustainability service group aims to raise communal awareness regarding the importance of reducing consumption of non-biodegradable materials and promoting their reuse wherever possible in order to avoid wastage. For this purpose, cardboard trays made from cartons have been distributed to all rooms in the school for the purpose of collecting ‘reusable’ paper. Similarly, in order to increase efficiency in recycling of non-biodegradable waste in the school, the OSC Maintenance Department has initiated a new program to better waste segregation on the campus. In accordance with the school’s strategic plan for 2010-2015 aimed at creating a green environment, separate sets of bins have been allocated for ‘Plastic’, ‘Paper’ and ‘Food’ waste collection.

The success of this initiative to promote sustainability and an eco-friendly waste management system in the school relies on the response of the OSC community. It is important that all members of the community make efforts to scrupulously follow the new waste disposal system. In addition, independent actions such as minimizing avoidable consumption at home, refraining from printing as far as possible and using electronic means instead, and selling old newspapers and other discarded items to scrap dealers for recycling would surely reduce the community’s ecological footprint.

Dhyani Ywahoo rightly said that “You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled.” Hence, it is vital for everyone in the community to play their part. So, the next time you are disposing a waste item, be ‘waste wise’ and remember ‘3 R’s for waste avatars.’

Other such articles can be accessed on the Recycling and Sustainability blog.

 

Some photographs of the recycling group at work can be accessed from the facebook page maintained by the OSC CAS student news service.

 

I am now looking forward to a less rainy November so that the service can proceed without any hindrance.

Service - Recycling commences :)

The Recycling and Sustainability service programme at OSC has been quite successful in its initiation. Jennifer Andersson (http://jennand94cas.blogspot.com/) and I were chosen as co-leaders for this activity and we have been working under the supervision of Mr. Ian Lockwood for this first month, i.e. September. 

The following students will be taking part in Recycling and Sustainability for Semester 1:

Aagney Menon

Akila Liyanage

Amrit Dayanand

Greta Rocchi

Hyung Suk Cho

Ji-Yul Ha

Malaika Salman

Nathan Omprasadham

Patrick Hofbauer

Shikhir Sapra

Yoon Jae Hwang

Ysobella Grieve-Darcy

The first session was held on 6^th of September. On the day, a previously planned introduction and many organized ice-breakers were carried out to start the activity in order to promote group bonding and community service spirit. No recycling material was collected that day, and in its place, an inventory of recycling boxes was conducted in the whole school. Thus, groups were created based on random chits picked out of a basket. 5 pairs and 1 group of three were formed such that the co-leaders would alternately participate in the collection of paper. The other co-leader would maintain the recycling room and organize collected recycling material for transport to the recycling center. By the end of the day, I developed new skills of addressing students with a formal introductory speech by overcoming the challenge of speaking in front of a group as a leader, and guiding the students by leading as a role model.

Many changes such as adding a lock to the recycling room and attaching a rule sheet describing the aim of the service and the recyclable materials to the room differentiate this activity from last year, and ensure an organized and systematic system of functioning.

In the most recent session on 27^th of September, Jenn and I visited the recycling center together for the first time this semester and sold approximately 122 Kg of paper and 30 Kg of cardboard that had been collected over the duration of a few weeks. We earned a total of SL Rs. 910. Visiting the center has echoed the local and global importance of the activity to me. The service not only helps to implement and encourage the ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ system within the school community, however, on a local level it benefits the recycling centers which act as middlemen between the consumers, i.e. the disposers, and the recyclers, i.e. the processing and recycling companies. On a global level, the whole cycle is not only eco-friendly; however, it is the simplest solution to resource depletion related problems. David Morris aptly said that “The case for recycling is strong. The bottom line is clear. Recycling requires a trivial amount of our time. Recycling saves money and reduces pollution. Recycling creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration. And a largely ignored but very important consideration, recycling reduces our need to dump our garbage in someone else’s backyard.” Furthermore, on a personal level, I have been inspired by the ethical implications of this activity to see the usefulness of so called waste. As a result, I have decided to contribute old newspapers and other recyclable materials from my house to the school service instead of disposing them as waste.

By planning our weekly sessions meticulously and meeting at least once before every session, I feel that we, i.e. the co-leaders and Mr. Lockwood, have collaborated very well to pace the activity and completely set it on track for achievement of major goals through the year-long journey to come. The students enrolled in the service this year are active and diligent participants, and with their collaboration, Recycling and Sustainability can be successful in achieving its long-term goals while also spreading the message of eco-friendly and sustainable living to the school and local community.

Readers, you can follow Recycling and Sustainability @ OSC on http://recycling1011.wordpress.com/.

Given below are a few photographs from the recycling service sessions of this month. (Photographs by Mr. Ian Lockwood.)

The hard-working recycling group! (Some members diligently at work are not seen in photograph.)

Preparations for the first trip to the recycling center.

Me addressing the recycling group.

My introductory speech on the 6 September, the first recycling session.

Commencing the ice-breakers.

The recycling group students at work.

I am now looking forward to replicate, and where possible, improve, the work we have done till date for the coming future. :)

Grade 12 - CAS goals

Major objectives for the year and goals for the 1st Semester

 
This post marks the beginning of the CAS programme for my final IB Diploma year. Returning from a refreshing summer break, I now plan to broaden the horizon for co-curricular activities by taking the previous year’s activities one step further.

 

Creativity:       

My main goal is to further develop my Guitar skills through continued lessons, learn new techniques to enhance and develop my music playing range, and increase my performance experience. 

Thus, I am going to continue learning to play the Guitar by attending hourly classes every weekend with my teacher Mr. Netaji and practicing on a regular basis. In this, I will:

• Be punctual - Attend classes regularly.
• Practice regularly.
• Enjoy the learning process!

To become a confident player, I will start recording some of the music I learn to play. For the first semester, I will upload at least 5 such videos onto my CAS blog. In addition, I will take part in at least two performances, either inside or outside (or both) of school. Both these tasks will be new challenges and shall help me to achieve my main objective.

Action:
The main goal I aim to achieve is improving my physical fitness level by increasing my stamina and improving my physique through Badminton, swimming, and regular exercises at home.
  

Hence, I am going to continue to attend Badminton sessions at the D.S. Senanayake twice every weekend. This activity has helped me to improve as a player as well as a sportsperson. Thus, I wish to continue these sessions as they provide a nice exercise environment between busy school days. They will also help me to fulfill my ‘Action’ criteria comfortably. By attending these sessions, I will become a more tactical and physically capable 'skilled' badminton player. The timings for these badminton sessions will be:

• Saturday – 7:00 am to 8:00 am
• Sunday – 7:00 am to 9:00 am 

For this activity, I will:

• Be punctual - attend class regularly.
• Utilize free time to do light exercises.
• Participate actively.
• Learn more and enjoy.

In addition, I will take part in at least one competition inside or outside school or attempt to represent my school in SAISA badminton.

Also, I plan to attend hourly sessions at the Thurstan College Swimming Complex at least twice every month. This program will continue to help me to improve my swimming as well as achieve my goal, i.e. to improve my physical fitness. I will always:

• Be focused.
• Be active.
• Raise the bar, i.e. try to do better every time.
• Work hard and have fun!

Service:        

My main objective for this domain of the CAS programme is to be well-involved with a particular service program at OSC and give my best efforts. I will achieve this by initially understanding the ethical implications and global importance of my actions, and subsequently taking responsibility, helping my peers, and planning and initiating activities in collaboration with them. 

Therefore, I will take part in the school’s Recycling service activity supervised by Mr. Ian Lockwood. The following tasks must be accomplished in order to succeed in accomplishing my goals:

• Be punctual and committed.
• Be focused.
• Participate actively.
• Help my peers.
• Take up new tasks and challenges.
• Learn and develop new skills.
• Enjoy!

In addition to these tasks, I will post monthly reflections with constant updates about my CAS related activities.

I look forward to a busy final year with lots of new experiences!