Arizona Girls Work to Pass Bottle-Return Bill
The Together Greening task force of Girl Scouts—Arizona-Cactus Pine Council in Phoenix, Arizona, is working with its state legislature to pass a bottle-return bill into law. They are hoping to get a hearing for the bill and are working to implement a recycling program at the state capitol. As part of the project girls are developing a resource guide with best practices and other useful information to share with others seeking to implement programs in their own communities. The team is pictured here, after giving a workshop and presentation, with Arizona State Representative Katie Hobbs.
Girls Educate Festival Goers
In North Charleston, South Carolina, the Together Greening task force of Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina council spent the day at the local Socastee Heritage Festival educating people about the importance of reducing waste and reusing and recycling items. As Girl Scouts passed out 450 reusable bags to festival goers, they encouraged all participants to pledge to reuse their new bags.
Girls Launch Save the Water Events
Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways have begun working with the Department of Environmental Conservation to clean up heavily polluted lakes and land. This is the first of three scheduled “Save the Water” events the Together Greening task force has organized. Once the designated areas are cleaned up, the girls envision building rain gardens to help prevent pollution runoff.
Iceland Girls Visit Alcoa Plant
When the group visited Alcoa Fjarðaál—an alumininum factory near a fjord on May 3, it received a warm welcome and the opportunity to learn much about minimizing pollution on an industrial site. From observing how to dispose of food waste in an environment-friendly way at the company canteen to learning about an experimental project that collects all surface water into the factory’s two ponds to prevent polluted and dirty surface water from flowing into the sea, the girls and the adult volunteers enjoyed their visit. As one volunteer said, “We quite liked what we saw in Alcoa Fjarðaál. Everything was very tidy and the pollution was much less than one could have imagined.”
Shanghai Girl Scouts Repurpose Discards
Creativity permeated the World Thinking Day activities in Shanghai attended by 700 young people on February 23, 2013. A Girl Scouts Forever Green/Alcoa project featured three “repurposing” activities: making bracelets from magazines, turning bottle caps into pins, and using old t-shirts to make tote bags. Participants learned about the importance of repurposing and about how it helps the environment. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, reflecting girls’ happy realization that their own imaginations were key to finding new uses for old things!
Girl Guides in Mexico Find Sponsor, Go Green
Girl Guides in central Mexico worked with a local convenience store to kick off their community recycling program on Earth Day. The store sponsored the Forever Green Task Force’s recycling efforts to distribute recycling bins in areas around the city, spreading the word about the benefits of reusing and recycling.
Girl Scouts Take Charge in Michigan
The Together Greening Task Force of Girl Scouts of Michigan Shore to Shore council took charge at the Girl Scout Earth Day Kickoff Expo on April 6, 2013. After greeting participants, task force members led visitors on a tour of the repurposed items that they and other volunteers had created and of the native species of plants on the site. The girls also gave a PowerPoint presentation about recycling and their twinning project and facilitated open discussion throughout the presentation.
Over the course of the day the girls ran recycling demonstrations, managed a variety of interactive stations, and led younger participants in outdoor carnival-style games. The photos here show girls recycling paper.
Girl Guides Protect the Planet, in Suriname
Alcoa volunteers work with Girl Guides in Suriname to help them understand the importance of their mission to plant trees. Here, an Alcoa volunteer presents facts about the mission. After his presentation, the girls then worked through a series of individual and group activities as they began to plan their team Take Action project.
Together, Girl Guides Green Up Mexico
Girl Guides of Central Mexico met to plan their springtime Together Greening projects, one of which was to collect used batteries and dispose of them properly so they won’t leach into the area’s water supplies.
Now that they’ve learned even more about problems in their communities, the Girl Guides have lined up additional recycling projects and have met with volunteers to put their plans into action.
Girl Scouts Create Boat from Discards
Girl Scouts represented the Universal American School in Dubai at the “DFC Whatever Floats Your Boat” competition, using recyclable items to make a boat—that actually floated.
The Girl Scouts also worked with elementary school girls, conducting two ALCOA-sponsored workshops demonstrating how to repurpose recyclables into useful household items. They are planning even more repurposing activities to encourage others to ”reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
Community sponsors—ALCOA, Aeropostale, Bond Interiors, and Malabar Gold and Diamonds— supported this project which helped inspire girls to find creative ways to save our planet.
