Projects

The project “Recycled paper educates” from the Initiative Pro Recycling Paper recognises exemplary schools who set a good example with respect to sustainability and already predominantly use paper with the Blue Angel. All of the participating schools receive a certificate and the title “Recycled paper-friendly school”. Participation is free of charge.

What does the rainforest have to do with me? This question is not asked by pupils at the Höchberg secondary school because they already understand how important the rainforest is for us all. Following a partnership with a school in Brazil, the student company “Paper Angels” at the Höchberg secondary school has been campaigning for the protection of the rainforest since 2006. In cooperation with the local stationary shop in the town, they sell products made of recycled paper. The range of products offered by the student company includes exercise books, folders, book covers and notebooks.  The Paper Angels are also engaged in other activities outside of the classroom and invest a lot of time in “their” project. Alexandra Mader, a teacher at the school, is proud of her pupils and their dedication and hopes that the example set by the Höchberg secondary school will be emulated in many other schools.

The student environmental project PapierPilz (PaperMushroom) finds creative solutions for the recycling of rubbish! The team searches for paper, pizza boxes, shoe boxes, muesli packages and other materials that are printed on one side and which most people would discard as rubbish. But the PapierPilz team didn’t want to stand idly by: “Something clicked one day as we saw the huge amounts of still usable paper that was being thrown away.”

Their idea was born: PapierPilz now produces flamboyant spiral notebooks with style and a sustainable goal that the team then distributes in return for a donation. Their aim is to develop an environmentally friendly direct recycling system. But their idea is not limited to paper. “This concept also works for anything that is thrown away although it is not broken or unusable”, explain the PapierPilz team.

The students in the PapierPilz team have already implemented their idea at their university and two other universities have now joined the recycling train. We hope that the PapierPilz concept will also start to sprout up in other areas – and implement many other creative projects!

Children at the creative swimming school in Berlin have participated in a special painting event to help protect the rainforest. The donations were used to help save part of the tropical rainforest in Ecuador and the children were given a charming calendar of the Potsdam biosphere that contained information on how they could protect the rainforest in everyday life, e.g. by using recycled products with the Blue Angel!

The fourth graders at the Bubenreuth primary school sell environmentally friendly paper products with the Blue Angel with great enthusiasm and commitment at a sales stand they have built themselves. The children sell their products at second break every Thursday and have achieved a lot of success: More than 80% of the pupils use the sales stand and some parents are also increasingly using it to buy their printing paper for at home. The example set by the primary school in their campaign has also convinced the local supermarket to completely switch their range of exercise books over to recycled products.

Young children and young adults participate every year in the OroVerde poster campaign “Geist ist geil!” (The mind is awesome!). They develop original, funny and creative ideas to raise awareness for the rainforest. Naturally, paper is a theme that can be easily integrated into their ideas because it has a very clear connection to everyday lives. The closing date for entries is 31 July every year. The best ideas are realised in a professional manner and printed.