Kategorie: News
My heart's project - what does it have to do with sitting on rubbish?
I have been involved in various environmental and nature conservation projects for a long time. Sometimes more, sometimes less intensively. When I read about Mama Earth a few years ago, I found the idea of planting mangroves very interesting. But if you haven't seen a project for yourself, you're usually only interested in it for a short time and other things quickly take over again.
Report by Gerald Nowak
This is not the case with this project, which I would like to introduce to you.
The Mama Earth Foundation was injected and set up by Ulrich Kronberg. Uli is a Hamburg publisher who founded “Palstek Verlag” (Publishing company) in 1985 with his colleague Imke Feddersen and publishes the technical sailing magazine “Palstek” (“Bowline”).
Uli has started a small but excellent environmental project, which he is expanding bit by bit with ever-increasing success. He organises mangrove planting on a large scale. Over 2.5 million mangrove seedlings have already been planted and several coastal areas in Mindanao on the Philippines have been reforested. Now you're probably asking, what do mangroves have to do with "sitting on rubbish"? Yes, this is exactly where I got involved and visited the project.
To cut a long story short: the mangroves are grown as seedlings and "planted" in shallow water by the contracted planters when they are big enough. In the process, the planters are often confronted with plastic waste. This rubbish has been deposited on land for years, where the next storm swept it back into the water. So Uli came up with the idea of recycling the rubbish, giving it a "second life". He finally found a company in Davao that makes furniture from plastic. The collected plastic waste is delivered there and made into school chairs with the other recycled plastic.
An affair of the heart
Why the school chairs are twice as good and what Uli has done with them is now a matter close to my heart. To understand this, you need to know that there is a free school system in the Philippines. Children can go to primary school free of charge in order to receive at least a basic education for life. However, due to the increase in population, there are not enough school chairs available. The children sit on chairs that are in need of repair or on the floor. Uli Kronberg had the idea of combining the recycling and production of the chairs for interested donors. The current donation of 38 euros includes the collection, recycling and delivery to the schools and children, as well as school books and pens! The chairs will be used for the entire primary school period and later passed on to the next pupils.
The recycling company also offers an exceptional service: if a chair breaks within 10 years, it will be replaced free of charge!
I personally inspected the production of the chairs and was able to see for myself that every cent of the donation really does go where it is intended. And it's nice to see the children's happy faces when they can sit on a comfortable chair and concentrate on their lessons.
Perhaps Uli will launch combination packages in future. It would be great if you could not only buy a chair for the kids with a single donation, but also support the mangrove planting at the same time. A chair costs 38 euros, the raising and planting of a mangrove 0.33 euros.
It's a wonderful thought to be able to buy a package where you know that 100 mangroves are being planted for me and a chair is being produced for a child. Let's see what he says when I visit him again soon to plant my mangroves myself and personally hand over my chairs to the schoolchildren!
If you would like to take part, you can do so via my website: www.gerald-nowak.de or directly at Mama Earth: mama-earth.de/produkt/mama-earth-schulstuehle/
Facts:
The Mama Earth Foundation is reforesting mangroves on a massive scale in the Philippines. Well over 2.5 million have already been planted, and the work continues every day. Mangroves not only ensure a better income for the local population, but also store a lot of CO2.
Due to the ongoing pollution of the oceans, more and more plastic waste is getting caught in the roots, which is collected by the planters for a little extra money. This waste must be fished out of the sea as quickly as possible because it can be ground up and enter the food chain!
In collaboration with the recycling company in Davao, Mama Earth has developed sturdy and durable chairs for schools that are made from around 30 kilograms of marine litter. An ideal solution for the tropical climate, which quickly damages chairs made from cheap wood.
Please support the campaign. A chair costs 38 euros and is numbered. The donor will receive proof of which Indigenous People's School (IP) the chair is located in and also the full address with contact details in case they wish to get in touch with the school at a later date.
For more information, just click here:
https://mama-earth.de/produkt/mama-earth-schulstuehle/
Dive-Inside: Protection of mangrove forests (Mama Earth Foundation)