In the beginning of March, EuropeYou youth workers had the opportunity to take part in the project “Circular economy in the youth work”. The training course was organized by Provision International in Bansko, Bulgaria and involved young people coming from several European countries.
Despite the unexpected crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we had a chance to enjoy a lot our few days in Bulgaria while learning interesting facts about the topic and exchanging experience among us. The first day of the training was dedicated to get to know each other activities, presentation of the project programme, rules as well as we shared about our experience on the project topic and expectation for the upcoming week. Moreover, trainers introduced to us the theme of circular economy and later, we had the task in national groups to describe what is the current situation and understanding of circular economy in our countries.
The next few days were dedicated to different non formal games and workshops about the food and plastic waste in EU, the history of plastic and its negative impact on human beings and wildlife. Mixed in international teams, we had to describe what is the waste we do in our daily life and also, what are the alternatives we have instead of using plastic. The main aim of this activity was to realize the impact each of us could have on the environment and what we can do in order to reduce it.
Another very interesting activity was the one in which we had to find different circular economy businesses in our countries and present them to the other youth workers. Thanks of this session, we saw a lot of good examples of businesses that are going circular, as well as completely new businesses that were born with the idea of being circular, benefiting our planet. Trainers also introduced to us the concept of 3R, referring to reducing, reusing and recycling, particularly in the context of production and consumption.
We learnt about the importance of promoting circular economy and also we had the task to create our own raise awareness campaign. We had a lot of fun, while working in groups for our outdoor activity where we were supposed to meet people from the local community and engage them with our project topic, but unfortunately because of the ongoing situation caused by the Covid-19, we didn’t manage to do this activity. However, once the situation gets better also in our country, we plan to use some ideas from this activity and promote the idea of circular economy in the city of Torremolinos.
In addition, we had the chance to organize an intercultural night, where all the participants in national groups presented their typical food, drinks and through videos, and quizzes presented us more about their traditions and culture.
Unfortunately, our great journey has finished some days before the planned departure but however, this project was a great experience for all of us. We had the chance to learn new knowledge about circular economy as well as to share what we know. Despite all the situation, we are very thankful for being part of this training course and we hope we can gather together with all the teams and talked more about how we, the young people, can and have to contribute more for the good of our planet!
