My Trash My treasure

Sharlien Tjambari

The “My Trash My Treasure” competition, aimed at raising awareness about the value of recyclable and recyclable waste is struggling to exercise its mandate due to a lack of donor assistance. The competition started in May and ended on Wednesday with insufficient funds to offer prizes to the winners.
Paulina Engelbrecht, an Environmental Officer at the Swakopmund Municipality urged businesses and individuals to get on-board, as My Trash My Treasure is an important project in the education of Namibians, particularly children, on the value of recycling and up-cycling. Where recycling involves the re-use of certain materials like carton or plastics, up-cycling involves taking old items like chairs, renovate and re-use it or taking an old washing machine barrel, transform it into a plant pot etc.
“We will highly appreciate it if companies and interested stakeholders come on board and donate prizes. We need that to motivate our school learners to participate in the competition again the next time”, said Engelbrecht.
Engelbrecht made this call on Wednesday morning appealing to interested parties to assist. The winning prizes for the competition have in the past come from donors.
Through this com-petition, learners are encouraged to use their creative skills to create any useful item from recyclable material. Learners from various Primary and Secondary schools in Walvis Bay and Swakopmund are challenged to take an active interest in their environment by demonstrating their creativity.
The creative com-petition “My Trash My Treasure” was first launch in 2013 and successfully implemented over 3 years under the auspices of the Swakopmund Municipality in 2015 and 2016 under the environmental initiative, Project Shine.
The Walvis Bay Municipality served as secretariat in 2017.