by Rod Hughes

Public school in Costa Rica are plugging holes in their meager budgets by collecting paper, glass, aluminum and other materials for recycling, reported the daily La Nacion.

But not only students and teachers contribute. Neighbors and residents nearby pitch in to collect refuse that would otherwise add to the urban glut that has become a serious municipal problem as landfill fill up. Costa Rica in the latter part of the 20th century became not only a throwaway society but, unfortunately, a litterbug one as well, so no shortage of raw material for recyclers exist.

Proceeds from sale to recyclers go toward buying teaching materials, classroom furniture and even electric appliances for use in the schools. But the Asencion Esquivel Ibarra School in Alajuela has taken the fund-raising use of refuse one imaginative step further.

Students make ornamental objects for the home from objects cast away as useless. One popular item for sale are bottles painted artistically for a multitude of uses, including as candleholders during power outages, for example. A tavern owner in town contributes empty bottles to the cause.

The school’s 10-year-old program last year netted enough funds to buy bookcases and a large table last year. It serves to teach the students protection of the environment as well as to earn funds, the teachers oint out, but it is hard work to collect, sort and prepare the materials as well as to transport items to the point of sale.

At the town of San Ramon in the same canton, the Escuela Laboratoria uses a more conventional approach, selling the refuse to a recycler in the canton. “What we make isn’t a big deal,” says school principal Cecilia Cuadra, “but it’s enough to buy paper for making (lesson) photocopies.”

One person’s trash is another’s treasure, goes the saying…