Batteries and pens, we give them a new life

What can we do with used batteries? And with pens? As sustainable school who are we, we have the answers to these questions! Since the 2017-2018 academic year, we have participated in Apilo XII Project, a project that aims to recycle batteries. But what led to the birth of this project?

As explained on their website, on our planet, the substances and materials in batteries can affect the quality of the water, air and land in which our fish, birds, plants and… ourselves live! With recycling, in addition to protecting the environment, we save resources by reusing many of these substances and materials. In addition, it must be taken into account that theEuropean and national regulations establish that from 2015, 45% of portable batteries and accumulators that are put on the market must be collected. Currently in Catalonia we only collect 34%. Therefore, to comply with the regulations we must significantly increase the selective collection of batteries. For this reason, the participation of each and every school is very important.

To promote battery collection in our classes, students from theoptional Arts and Crafts 4th ESO have made containers to deposit them. These containers, made with completely recycled material, have been given to the children in kindergarten and primary school so that each class can have its own container. We hope to get many kg between us! Remember that you can all collaborate by depositing your batteries in the “Coet Apilo XII” that you have at the entrance to the school!

We've already clarified what happens with batteries, but what about pens? This year we've adhered to the Writing Instruments Recycling Program, a European project by TerraCycle and BIC.

Each class will collect their writing materials and, subsequently, all the material will be deposited in boxes and sent free of charge to the TerraCycle facilities. There, the first thing that will be done will be to weigh the contents and, depending on the weight achieved, the school will be awarded points that can be exchanged for charitable gifts or donations to the associations of the school's choice. This project carried out by TerraCycle in collaboration with BIC allows writing materials to be given a second life by building urban and garden furniture, among others.

Once again, it is in our hands to act to improve our world! We look forward to your collaboration!