I know I am a few weeks late from WED, but to me everyday is World Environment Day. For this year?s WED event, I took my team, Green Team Indonesia, to the waste bank. This was the reason why I created the recycling campaign. In the previous article, I said that we collected 30 something kilograms of paper. I was so wrong.

When we first arrived to the waste bank, we met with the educator that would be receiving our papers and also educating us about what a waste bank really is. A waste bank is a place where you can give your garbage waste in exchange for money. As the founder of Green Team Indonesia and regional ambassador to Tunza Eco-generation, I have a duty to increase environmental awareness and create campaigns like these. 

Green Team Indonesia opened a Garbage Bank Account in the waste bank. Funny right? We have garbage bank accounts too haha. We were given a book (Made of recycled paper) and in there was our details such as our name (Green Team Indonesia), What type of waste we collected - which was paper, how much kilograms of waste we collected and how much money we earned from giving away the disposable waste to them. 

I was very, very surprised and delighted when I saw how much kilograms of paper we have collected. I couldn't believe my eyes! We collected 112.5 kilograms of paper! I was so happy I had to contact all of my friends and tell them the good news. From 112.5 kilograms of paper, we earned Rp. 107 000 which is quite a lot of money. The money we earned from this will be used for our other campaigns such as making biosoap and biodiesel from used cooking oil in order to reduce the amount of used cooking oil that is being sold to street vendors in order to be renewed and reused as ?clean? cooking oil (it?s actually really unhealthy and dangerous for our body). 

The paper that we donated to the Waste Bank will be sent to their industry in Java and recycled. They also receive other wastes such as bottles, cans, etc. They make them into products such as handbags, dresses, etc. It is very nice and a very good example of the 3R?s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

During the process of collecting the papers for recycling, I proposed the campaign to my school?s principal asking for his help to allow me to put boxes in each classroom for the students to put their paper. I will take it home with me and bring it to the waste bank. Unfortunately, my proposal was turned down, but it was for a good reason. My principal told me that the paper being thrown into the garbage bins at school are taken by the school helpers and sold to places like waste banks too. The money they receive from this will be an addition to their monthly income.

As the title of this report says, this is the end and the beginning of a journey. It is the end for our first recycling campaign, but I will not stop now. I will continue this campaign until I am no longer able to. It is a very good alternative to throwing paper away to landfills. Go green!