During a visit by students from Primary School No. 4 to the Municipal Utilities Management Company, several waste items were taken for creative reuse. The students, under the supervision of their teacher Wojciech Tarczyński, searched for parts useful for their project: building a recycling bench. They also visited the Municipal Selective Waste Collection Point and the Municipal Waste Disposal Plant (ZUOK) in Trzebień, where chief technologist Piotr Tutak showed them around the facility.
From 3 garbage trucks a day to 50!
The chief technologist of ZUOK in Trzebień spoke to the students about waste and its processing in a very engaging and professional manner. The ZUOK facility in Trzebień was established in 1997, modernized in 2004, and was intended to process waste delivered by three garbage trucks a day. After 26 years, the plant has a limit of 850 tons of waste per year and accepts up to 50 garbage trucks daily.
“The market has changed dramatically,” said Piotr Tutak. “Waste is found where society is affluent. Poor societies use everything. In the past, glass containers were returned for exchange; today, there is plastic. Although this trend is reversing and glass packaging is returning, the largest plastics manufacturers have to show that they recycle as much packaging as they produce. Recycling PET packaging (the common name for polyethylene terephthalate, a material derived from crude oil—as the editor notes) means returning mostly plastic bottles to the market in the form of T-shirts, shoes, fleece clothing and so on,” the technologist explained.
Plastic bottles will be the main building material for the recycling bench that the “No. 4” school students will make under their teacher’s supervision. It will be presented on Saturday, August 19, in the Glina Show town. The aim is to draw attention to the amount of waste produced and demonstrate a way to use it creatively.
Recycling Art in the City of Ceramics
The project Recycling Art in the City of Ceramics, because we love our planet! is a joint initiative of istotne.pl, Primary School No. 4 and the Municipal Utilities Management Company.
The project aims to reduce the amount of waste by recovering raw materials from discarded products and using them to create decorations, machines and
decorative elements during the Glina Show event, held as part of the Ceramics Festival. Another aim is to develop environmental awareness. The students can address the civilization-related problems of littering the planet and, through their creativity, show that waste can be transformed into recycling art. Waste can be creatively changed into something useful and decorative—even something that delights the viewer.
The recycling decorations will be used to adorn the Glina Show town, which will be located on the grounds of Bolesławiec’s historic municipal parks near Bankowa Street. Tourists and residents will visit the town in large numbers during the Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival, and the bench created as part of the project will certainly be an attraction that draws everyone’s attention.
We sort waste with MZGK Bolesławiec
On the MZGK Bolesławiec website, you can check exactly how to sort municipal waste: mzgk.com.pl/segregacja-odpad
Residents are required to collect the following waste selectively:
- paper
- glass
- metals
- plastics
- multilayer packaging waste
- biowaste
Containers or bags in specific colors are used for this purpose: yellow (metals, plastics and multilayer packaging waste), blue (paper), green (glass) and brown (biowaste).
Other waste, for example:
- kitchen waste of animal origin, such as meat and cold cuts
- hygiene products, such as disposable diapers and personal hygiene products
- rubber and latex gloves
- faience, porcelain and broken dishes
- wet or greasy paper
- ordinary light bulbs
- toys, including plush and rubber toys
- thermal paper, such as receipts, and fax paper
- heat-resistant and shatterproof glass
should be collected in black or gray containers.