“Operation Trash” Sister City Education Exchange 2022
BALTIMORE, MD, USA, February 2022 — Operation Trash Virtual Exchange is an international cultural exchange project centered around the themes of waste and recycling. The 2022 edition of the exchange kicks off in February with Bay Brook Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) and the bilingual Wolfert Lansing school in Lansingerland (a suburb of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, a sister city of Baltimore).
Operation Trash uses an action-oriented approach to make young people aware of the global dimensions of litter and how they can help address it. Participants take a critical look at their own trash behavior, and how this affects the living environment worldwide and in their own neighborhood. After a virtual introduction, students in both countries compare their waste challenges, and ultimately take action to tackle the litter problems in their neighborhood and to stimulate recycling at home and at school.
The Operation Trash program focuses on these themes:
- How trash pollutes where we live and nature
- The danger posed by plastic soup in the sea
- How our linear consumption behavior depletes natural resources
- Inviting youth to take the lead on trash and recycling challenges
- Applying “Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Recycle” concepts
Kathie diStefano, co-founder of Avalanche Arts and recipient of the “Leaders For A Living Planet” award from the World Wildlife Fund, is the project leader for this program (kathiedistefano.com).
The Operation Trash exchange is made possible in part by support from the municipality Lansingerland, Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee and Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE).
About Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee
The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is a volunteer-run committee based in Baltimore that promotes economic, cultural, educational, health/environmental and other cooperation and exchanges between Baltimore, Maryland, USA and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The committee is part of Baltimore Sister Cities, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
baltimorerotterdam.org
About Avalanche Arts
Avalanche Arts is a Rotterdam non-profit that specializes in transferring important social themes for a wide audience. Dutch name: Stichting Lawine.
stichtinglawine.nl