Papermaking to inspire

The papermaking project being embarked upon by the WEPD group aims to create awareness of the import of recycling. Waste reduction means a smaller carbon footprint, which essentially means a healthier earth. Papermaking and carbon footprint questionnaires are a practical way of making learners conscious of the value of recycling and how it may help to better their school environment.

While recycling is a viable option for a cleaner planet, it is not at all prolifically practiced in the small city of Grahamstwon. Nicky Kohly, a part-time Environmental Officer at Rhodes University, gives two main reasons for why recycling in Grahamstown is yet to take off. Firstly, there is the cost of petrol, the modern day liquid gold. Often empty containers take up too much space, so that the transport costs prove too much. A second problem is staff. Handling separate bags of different materials requires extra staffing. The staff also needs to be educated on how to separate recyclable materials properly.

We need to find creative solutions to these problems in order to get the larger Grahamstown community on the bandwagon, or in this case, the truck. Recycling has the potential to soothe problems of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It would reduce the need for new landfills, reduce groundwater and air pollution, reduce energy use and the use of natural resources. Basically recycling reduces the burdens of pollution on our planet.
Despite the list of potential pros, recycling can be risky business if the recycling process is inefficient and if materials need to be transported over long distances. In this case recycling could increase greenhouse emissions, energy use, air pollution and the use of natural resources. If recycling projects are mismanaged the effort of separating one’s waste would be pointless.

The Prof Greenthumb group aims to make learners conscious about recycling. Learners should be educated on environmentally friendly ways of reusing waste. Our ultimate goal is for the school to start up a recycling project. This goal is our most ambitious. The least we hope to achieve is environmental awareness. Learners need to be aware of the severity of the problem before we can expect them to be willed to make any meaningful changes. Hopefully by the end of our time with them, they will have learnt enough to make them care about the environment off which they live.

Grocott's spread

The designers and I had a meeting with Stephen Lang, the editor of Grocott's today. He has guaranteed us a two page spread in the Tuesday edition two weeks from now.

This spread will consist of an array of stories, from our projects, governmental policy to environmental education within the school system. Which will all come together through a creative layout.

The logo I used on the certificate for the Nyaluza participants.

Assembly/Presentation at Nyaluza

We officially launched the anti-littering campaign this morning, the Nyaluza school took it on well. One of the geography students spoke in front of the assembly where approximately 100 students were gathered and then the drama students did their skit and it created dialogue which lead to singing and chatting about it. Afterwards the school went around picking up papers for twenty minutes before their classes. The learners' reaction was interesting some wanted to pick up yet it seemed 'uncool', however as they saw other students missioning around and picking up litter they warmed up to the idea.

My only concern is the sustainability of the project itself. I think perhaps once a month this could be done so as to entrench and create a culture of picking up litter around their school. And Tinyiko suggested we produce a dvd and send it to other schools around the Grahamstown, so that it could be a model to follow and hopefully be something of value. Tomorrow is the last event on our radio/photojourn agenda, we are taking the learners to the river clean up organised by Grass. I'll fill you in later...

hey guys,

Just in case you think the writers are slacking. I am here to assure you that there are many stories being written, we just saving them for Grocott's. Putting them on the blog, may ruin their novelty.

The Drama Students recording

Caution for all Prof Green Thumb Members: Issues of Representation in Journalistic Media Output

One of the most difficult things about journalistic media output is that there will always be some type of unease with the manner in which sources are represented. Mainstream journalistic writing which still in some degrees dances to the tune of objectivity often results in a journalistic output that represents sources as objects. Moreover it tends to reinforce the stereotypes that have come to be associated with certain groups of people and also perpetuates widely held ideologies that are oppressive and disempowering to those whom they exclude. I feel that we as student journalists need to be very aware of this, seeing that most of us are working with learners that attend so-called ‘disadvantaged’, ‘historically disadvantaged’, ‘currently disadvantaged’, ‘underprivileged’ schools…whatever it is… you see even these categories and supposedly politically correct/incorrect terms are incredibly problematic. Although, the fact that we are employing a participatory-civic form of journalism should ease the burden created by this tension, I still think it is important that our journalistic output (be it posters, PSAs, how-to videos or sound slides) represent the learners we are working with as active agents and subjects that are having a positive impact on their immediate environment, through whatever it is they are participating in – be it an anti-littering campaign, a PSA stigmatises littering, or a paper making initiative that promotes recycling.