Recycling’s on the curriculum in Saudi
This Extra Special Green Drinks Birmingham on Thursday focused on the successes of Mauth Aldabbagh, from Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, who introduced recycling lessons into the Jiddah school curriculum.
In a short time, Muath has achieved what many hope to achieve in their lifetime, his work even resulting in recycling sorting centres in Jiddah.
How did he do it?
Mauth explained to me the attitude to recycling in Jiddah, when he started his project in 2006:
‘It’s very negative; neither the Government nor the people seemed to care.
The people in power were only interested in self glorification and publicity and established recycling companies were all in it for profit: actually they ended up causing more damage than good’.
This attitude meant that Mauth realised he had to aim his scheme at young children so that they could in turn educate their parents.
A curriculum was created; which was based on a series of interactive workshops and aimed at 6 to 7 year olds. Workshop activities included: making fertiliser from organic food waste and creating a logbook of where things come from.
Mauth put the success of the workshops down to their subtle approach:
‘Global warming is not mentioned; we use phrases like ‘I’m not alone’ to describe sharing resources and really our agendas are quite hidden’.
Currently, the workshops are being trialled in 30 schools in Jiddah and if the trials prove to be successful then the curriculum will go national.
The Green Drinks meeting ended on a high as everybody contemplated recycling lessons being on the curriculum in Britain and the effects it would have.
The next Green Drinks session is on Tuesday 2nd March at 6pm, at Locanta Restaurant.
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My first article for Birmingham Recycled « The Wonderful World of a Media Student says:
[...] Recycling’s on the curriculum in Saudi [...]
Mar. 1 at 3:59 pmBen Harrow says:
Do you think it’s going to take off in Saudi on a bigger scale? What about everywhere else in the world?
Sorry for horribly mean comments but I thought you might appreciate questions!
Mar. 1 at 11:04 pmGreen Dragon’s Den Comes To Birmingham : Birmingham Recycled says:
[...] Aldabbagh was the final person to present to the Dragons (and he was also at the Extra Green Drinks later in the evening). The teenager from Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, told the audience his inspiring [...]
Mar. 2 at 11:55 pmLaura Hogan says:
I think it will Ben; i don’t think it would have the same impact here; but because each school gets to choose what’s on their curriculum in Saudi, how many school’s choose it will show it’s success.
Also, i think the way in which the workshops are presented is important to the success of the scheme.
I really hope it works, partly because Mauth was a really nice guy.
Mar. 18 at 11:15 am