CCB’s Corazón Verde Environmental Programme has been running campaigns for more than 6 years to raise awareness among the whole community of the importance of caring for the environment. It develops innovative campaigns such as: “Alto si la tiras contaminas”, “Destapa tu Solidaridad”, used light bulbs, “Punto Azul” and used cooking oils. It also produces 100% organic compost with material collected from pruning green areas and dry leaves and it also has a vegetable garden and a school nursery where the beds used for planting are supplied with the same compost, creating spaces for play, learning and healthy interaction.
STOP! If you throw it away, you pollute! (¡Alto! Si la tiras, contaminas)
Thanks to this Corazón Verde campaign, there are spaces available within the CCB for the whole community to bring used batteries and deposit them in strategically located collection sites, preventing this type of dangerous waste from reaching the landfill.
A bottle cap that makes a difference
With the “Uncap your Solidarity” campaign, the aim is for the community to recycle their bottle caps and bring them to the CCB, generating large quantities, around 830 kg per year, which are then given to the Carlos Portela Foundation, which helps children with low incomes who suffer from cancer.
What to do with used light bulbs?
We also have 4 locations where the community can bring their halogen lamps, which are then delivered to a company that is responsible for the proper management of this material, thanks to the campaign “Used light bulbs”. This campaign collects about 90 kg of bulbs per year.
Bring your expired medicines to the Punto Azul
All expired medicines that are brought to the School are deposited in a specific place, the Blue Point, in order to hand them over to a company for their proper disposal. In this way we prevent the 40 kg of medicines collected each year from ending up in the landfill or being unscrupulously repackaged.
These campaigns are necessary for the proper management of this type of waste, which allows the CCB to care for the planet, a demanding task, but one that is being accomplished step by step.
“One of the biggest challenges has been to generate environmental awareness within the CCB Community. Changing and/or improving habits in order to preserve our environment. Here we have to unlearn in order to relearn. Sometimes it is very complex, especially for adults, because they have been doing it in a certain way for many years, and it is not easy to tell them that the way they are doing it is not the right way. It is necessary to be in constant training for students, collaborators and parents,” said Luciano Popó González, environmental facilitator at CCB.
CCB Composting
With the development of the Composting Project, it is possible to transform organic matter to obtain natural fertiliser for the land and soils. However, in order to carry out this process, it is necessary to have the minimum and necessary conditions such as: humidity, oxygenation (turning), collection and propagation of microorganisms.
This project was born after a rigorous analysis where it was decided that the organic material from more than 600 trees of the CCB had a high potential to be converted into compost. We currently produce more than 22 cubic metres of naturally composted per year.
From this activity, which benefits the environment and teaches new ecological practices, we also obtain a monetary benefit, in this case from the sale of the composted manure, as it is offered to the CCB community. These profits are destined to the Social Work Committee, COS, belonging to the Parents and Teachers Association, PTA. Thanks to these resources, COS sponsors some low-income schools in the city and provides them with technological material for their education.
Acquiring new habits
With Corazón Verde, students, teachers, parents and staff have the opportunity to work on activities that generate environmental awareness, such as: separation of solid waste at source, the school garden, composting, nursery and cleaning of the Pance River. The environmental facilitators also give talks about these activities.
Thanks to the commitment of the Corazón Verde Environmental Programme in carrying out these responsible practices with the environment, it is hoped that the whole community will take ownership of these processes, have new habits and commit themselves to their surroundings with the aim of demonstrating that at the CCB we educate by example, sowing positive habits for the protection of our planet.
“We want to continue advancing with the programme and we have made a lot of progress, but much more is needed. Our short-term goal is to create a network of schools in the Pance area, to gather a large group of students and schedule clean-up days for the rivers in the area and to reforest the slopes of the Pance River. The school would provide the seedlings and compost from our compost bin and nursery,” said Luciano.
Are you already supporting Corazón Verde in some of its campaigns? Remember that your Corazón Colombo is also a Corazón Verde.
