Recycling CAS 2011 - 2012

In my second year in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) I decided to rejoin the Recycling Community and Service group I had been in last year. The goal of this Community and Service (C & S) programme is to help sustain and lessen our school's carbon footprint in Sri Lanka, and thus the world. By recycling common materials from around the school the Recycling Community and Service group is able to help reduce, reuse and recycle items made from paper, cardboard, metal, and plastic. This makes sure our school does not waste the precious resources the earth has to offer and it helps lessen our need for certain products to be re-manufactured when they can just be recycled. This is an important service activity as in a world where global warming is prevalent and where environmental issues are developing due to a rise in population and modernity, recycling and reusing is vital since it can help save our environment and natural weather cycles, mainly through a reduction in our carbon footprint. Goals I had for myself in the Recycling Community and Service group was to play my part as a environmentally aware citizen and thus to recycle, reuse, and reduce as much as possible, after all, it is my generation's goal to perserve the world as we had it for the next generation that comes along. Locally, this community and service group addresses problems in Sri Lanka like throwing away waste correctly, i.e. having paper together in boxes and organic foods in labelled bins. Locally, this programme also links to raising awareness of recycling for our community, so that our diverse group of students all know the importance of recycling and being environmentally conscious. Our Recycling Community and Service programme impacts the world by helping in the global effort to save the environment and it also links to global awareness as all the international students at our school that leave Sri Lanka for other countries will bring this recycling awareness with them. As well, in the Recycling Community and Service activity I have worked with others to achieve this shared goal. After all, teamwork is required when making posters or when carrying heavy containers of paper or cardboard that needs to be recycled. As well, I had to engage in teamwork to achieve the shared goal of being succesful with improving our school's impact on the environment as often I needed to work with others to organize a clean-up or create a schedule to be more efficient in our programme which focuses on reducing, reusing and recycling locally.  One more aspect of teamwork was communication, as without this we would certainly not have been able to use each others ideas or work as well as we did and eventually achieve our goal of helping the school become more sustainable and eco-friendly.

As seen in the graph above, which shows the amount of paper, cardboard and plastic recycled by the Community and Service activity I was involved in during this school year, it is clear that we indeed achieved our goals. After all, over the course of the whole year the recycling team and I managed to recycle 1,018 kilograms of paper (that's more than 1 ton of paper!), 466 kilograms of cardboard and 3 kilograms of plastic.Furthermore, I can also say that for this year not only have we achieved the activity's goals in making the school lessen its carbon footprint, but I have also personally achieved my goal of being an active member in the community that helps spread awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability and acts with a positive impact on reducing global warming. Therefore I have contributed by helping to recycle resources
as seen in the picture to the left. I have participated actively and had always been present to help with the labor which recycling requires, when I did my Community and Service hours. I am also proud of this as I believe I have grown through this experience, as part of me is now much more aware of how to lead an environmentally friendly life. Also, I have grown more responsible and communicative as I have learned through my experiences with teamwork in this activity. I have also grown to be more independent, as I now tend to not rely as much on others to make a positive impact on the environment as I already recycle in my house and I help spread this awareness in my family. I am also sure that in the future I can use this growth and knowledge learnt from the Recycling Community and Service activity and apply it elsewhere, whether it is in my future career or community. In fact, I can say I have grown to be more experienced in a few IB Learner Profile Traits. For example, I am now much more knowledgeable, especially in the area of environments and
recycling as I "explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance". I also am a better communicator as now I "understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication." This is because I became more skillful at communication through teamwork as shown here to the left with all my recycling peers. I also practiced drawing posters and talking with people to help make them aware about their impact on the earth which again proves I have gained experience as a communicator. I have definitely  also improved at being more reflective as throughout the activity I was involved I always gave "thoughtful consideration to my own learning and experience". I was able to use this reflection ability to improve and learn more about myself and the activity.

In conclusion, I feel that I have really learnt a lot through the Recycling Community and Service activity and I am glad that I participated in it. I think It was a good reminder for me to remember to always give back to mother nature what it has given to you. In my case it meant recycling and saving resources and I am proud I made a positive impact by helping the school lessen its carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly. I believe that next year I will have another very rewarding experience like this and it will continue to help me to learn and become more independent and prepared for life. Until then, however, I will continue to advocate the importance of recycling to my community and I will make sure I keep on making a positive impact on the environment.▪


Patrick Hofbauer is a student at the Overseas School of Colombo. Currently he is in the secondary school and he enjoys living in Sri Lanka. He is from Austria and is a proud member of the Class of 2015.



For More Information about the OSC Recycling Community and Service Activity Visit: http://recycling1011.wordpress.com/

Recycling CAS 2010-2011

Recycling bottles on the Overseas School of Colombo's campus.

This is my first year in an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. This means that it is also my first time doing a Community and Service (CAS) activity. I chose the activity of recycling because, being introduced to this new system of school, I wanted to choose something I knew and felt a little familiar with before trying activities that seemed quite new and complicated to me. Afterall, I did do similar recycling activities in my old school although they were not always required. Reflecting on my decision, I think that I chose the correct CAS activity as my school work and extra-curriclular life during the beginning of my school year was still quite balanced despite spending every Thursdary afternoon cleaning up the environment. The following explains the Recycling CAS group of the Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) further:

"OSC is working on reducing campus waste through the collection and sorting of recyclables on site. The Recycling and Sustainability group consists of one teacher, Mr. Lockwood, two main leaders, Alex Mylvaganam, and Constanze Klempin and a small group of ten to fifteen students. The school waste is put into the recycling room under the big water tank near the gym/cafeteria where we stored everything until Thursday afternoon where students go from class to class collecting recyclable materials. We collect paper, clean plastic, batteries, cartridges, cardboard, etc. Our group collects the materials and sorts them. Then we take the materials in the OSC maintenance pickup truck and deliver the materials to a recycling center near the campus. We make a significant amount of money selling recyclables (especially cardboard and paper). There is still more to be done but at least we are making a small change for our community."

This map shows the route our truck takes to get to the Recycling Center from OSC.

As mentioned, this CAS group really focuses on the school environment but it is also helpful for the general local environment. This is because the obtained materials are all loaded into a pickup truck that transports the items to a recycling center where the items are sold. This generates income for the buyer of the materials as he buys the materials at a low price from our CAS group and resells them at a higher price to various environmentally friendly companies and groups. It also allows that person to be employed which, is often not easy in a developing country such as Sri Lanka. The money that we, as a CAS group, generate through the trade allows us to donate to various other causes as well. One can clearly deduce that recycling is not only a benefit for the environment, but it is also a benefit for the local economy (even if it is only a small benefit).

Click on the Graph for an enlarged view.

Above you can see a scatter graph focusing on the paper/cardboard collected in the CAS recycling activity throughout most of 2010-2011. The trend seems to be that less and less cardboard and paper is being collected with occasional spikes of high amounts of paper/cardboard. The reason for this is that, at the beginning of the school year, all the recyclable materials in the school gathered in heaps throughout the summer. With no one to attend to them, small piles became mountains. Thus, the most materials were collected at the beginning of the school year; declining more and more as work was put in to get it all recycled. But one must not infer that less work was done in the later stages of the year. In fact, many events and occasions that produced a surplus in recyclable materials (spikes in the graph), in the later stages of the school year. This kept our CAS group busy and working hard. Taken together, it is easy to see that throughout the whole school year a lot of work was needed to get all the recycling done. It was not left unrewarded however, as you can imagine that 120 kilograms of paper did not sell for that little money (the rate was somewhere around 3-4 Sri Lankan rupees a kilo, I believe).

In conclusion, although the Community and Service activity of Recycling was my only CAS activity this year, it still gave me a good taste of the IB programme's required work in this extracurricular aspect of school. Next year, I will continue working hard on my subsequent CAS activity, whatever it may be. Also, along with my CAS activity this year, I have also donated to various causes such as Cleft Palate, Hope for Kids Cancer association and Japan's earthquake and tsunami. I have also worked with my classmates painting and refurnishing a school for underprivileged kids in a remote area of north Sri Lanka. It was an interesting and very rewarding experience for me and the children I got to help. Throughout this year, I have also worked hard on school work and studies but I have definitely never forgot that giving is an important part of life too. ▪


Patrick Hofbauer is a student at the Overseas School of Colombo. Currently he is in the secondary school and he enjoys living in Sri Lanka. He is from Austria and is a proud member of the Class of 2015.