Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

On the bustling square in front of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store, nine students with an average age of 13 years old put up a small carnival for sustainable living to promote knowledge of waste classification among residents on Sunday.

With interactive games and trivia, the students aimed to share knowledge of garbage classification and recycling they had gained throughout their semester-long research and surveys.

Fu Ziyue is a sixth grade student attending a primary school in Nanshan District. With her partners, Fu presented nine special “popsicles” made from a kind of gelatinous chemical substance with all sorts of waste such as plastic, metals and leaves strewn inside.

“With these popsicles, we want to show the different categories of garbage to the residents in a clear and fun way,” said Fu. She also kindly reminded visitors to wash their hands after touching the trash popsicles models.

Fu told Shenzhen Daily that she and the other students had carried out research on Shenzhen residents’ habits regarding classifying garbage for the last semester since October 2017.

Through research and surveys, Fu and her teammates found that though most of the residents they spoke with know that there are four major categories of waste, they seldom classify the garbage in their daily lives.

“Actually, there are four types of garbage bins at each residential complex in Shenzhen and it is very convenient for people to throw their daily wastes after sorting them out,” said the girl. “It would also be much more handy for the cleaners to collect each category of garbage if the wastes were classified first.”

A self-made coin pusher machine was also a highlight that attracted many passersby to the event. The machine was designed and made by Yuan Hao and his teammates. Yuan is a junior middle school student at Shenzhen Middle School.

Instead of pushing game coins like those at the playgrounds, the pusher is made to push lids of water bottles with a small-sized automatic gear. The machine is made of wooden cardboard and painted by the students themselves.

Yuan and his group attempted to interact with the residents, many kids included, and share knowledge of garbage recycling with them in an interesting way.

The carnival was proposed and organized by the nine students with the support of an educational training company, Leap Club, which focuses on enhancing children’s understanding of software abilities, social responsibility, communication abilities, creativity and so on.

“In fact, many schools are now teaching students knowledge about waste classification, but our students gained more hands-on experience when they actually went to the garbage stations to talk to the sanitation workers and other residents,” said the founder of Leap Club surnamed Huang.

According to Huang, it was the third semester-long project the students taking courses at Leap Club had carried out so far, with the first two focusing on aiding the visually-impaired and advocating for low-carbon travel.