reBLUE

The project has been developed by a group of pupils, some of them are part of the eco-school committee, and others have shown interest through their participation in other activities and competitions related to Eco-school or to European projects. The teachers involved, two of them are Environmental Policy Representatives (EPR) of the school and another is the EPR of her department. After brainstorming, we concluded that the litter on our beaches, significantly during summer, was a problem to be targeted.

We thought of different sources of litter, but we concluded on TOYS. We looked at data collected from clean ups of our beaches and toys didn’t represent the biggest percentage of litter collected (MarLitCy database). However, in other countries such England, recorded data from Keep Britain Tidy campaign, or in North Carolina (USA), the Plastic Ocean Project, pointed toys as a big concern for litter on beaches and marine life threats.

Our project “reBLUE” will develop boxes where beach toys can be stored (a toy library), used and returned by visitor on the beaches in Cyprus.

This project tries to solve the problem of plastic waste that is produced every year during the summer. Tourists traveling with children will have to buy toys from the beach kiosk, use them for a short period of time, and then throw them away, as they won’t need them anymore. Most of this plastic is not recyclable. Also, locals spending the day at the beach, may forget their toys set, thus they will have to buy new ones just for one day. There are also toys abandoned on the beach that end up in the trash bin or carried away by the waves.

In order for the project to be successful, municipalities at the seaside needed to be engaged. There were some rejections from private businesses that didn’t want to get involved. So, then we targeted beaches that already have the BLUE FLAG, so the implementation of this school project could be also an asset for them. RE-BLUE can contribute to address the SDGs that Blue Flag principles try to achieve. The pupils created a list of criteria to be followed in order to select the Municipalities near the coast (South East Coast of Cyprus) that are the most suitable for this project.

If re-BLUE succeeds, by reducing the one-use toys, and therefore consumption, local businesses could complain about it, because their sales will be reduced. Discussing our initiative with them could be key in the continuation of the project. Cleaner beaches and happier tourists will be a win-win situation for everyone, and the local business will be favored as well. Our pupils will be mediators and will benefit from all these discussions and from considering all the parties involved in their project.

The pupils will work on the design and construction of the boxes, also in the marketing campaign. They will talk with local business near the installation points so they can share the message with the visitors. QR codes and posters will be produced to inform about the purpose of the boxes. A website will be developed to promote and keep track of the progress of the project and for promotion of the activity. It will give the chance to visitors finding the location of the beaches with our boxes.

Visits will be planned during spring and summer to evaluate the status of the boxes and do any adjustments may be needed on the boxes.

After the summer, the feedback submitted by the users through the QR codes will be analyzed and the results will be also shared with the businesses and municipalities involved.

The Eco-Code of the project is RE-BLUE, we want our sea as blue as possible, RE-PLAY, we want visitors of the beach to use the toys many times, RE-THINK if you can reuse toys, why buy new.

re-BLUE could be a solution with a circular economy approach to target the problem Plastic Waste and Marine Life Protection.