'Green' Schools Flourish in Porto Alegre

[marmar]

from IPS News:



RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23, 2010 (Tierramérica) - Living sustainably can be learned. That is the idea championed by two schools in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where students are learning to become environmental citizens of the new millennium.

At the João XXIII School, it was the H1N1 flu alarm that prompted a change. To prevent the spread of the disease, last year the school administration replaced the usual drinking fountains with water coolers that use disposable cups.

But some of the students began to play with the plastic cups instead of using them for drinking. "It was a waste," Gabriela Borges, 15, president of the João XXIII Student Union, told Tierramérica.

So the students suggested replacing the disposable cups, and now each student and staff member has his or her own plastic bottle -- to be reused indefinitely.

Those 1,500 bottles, distributed free of charge, reduced plastic cup use from 3,500 to 250 per day. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53948