Ahead of the World Environment Day, 5 June, the award ceremony for the winners of the “Trashformers: Schools Transform Waste” was held yesterday in Europe House. The competition, launched in order to invite schools across the country to participate in creating sustainable solutions for waste reduction saw over 90 applications showcasing creative and innovative solutions from students.

Head of Communications and Spokesperson at the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ferdinand Koenig, awarded the winners of the competition on behalf of the EU Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina and spoke about the importance of such actions and awareness raising amongst the students. 

“Today we celebrate the competition winners but are also recognizing something much greater: the creativity, responsibility and environmental leadership shown by each applicant. The students showed that they didn't just study the problems- they have acted upon it - turned discarded materials into useful objects, launched awareness campaigns and showed that change begins with all of us - in our communities. They have demonstrated that age is no barrier to leadership and innovation and have inspired their peers and us adults to rethink our habits. We need more young leaders whose voices are bold, ideas fresh and whose actions speak louder than words and the EU in BiH is happy to support them,” underlined Koenig. 

Five winning schools include primary schools “Kovačići” from Sarajevo, “Lejla Hairlahović-Hušić” from Cazin, “Hamdija Kreševljaković” from Gradačac, Primary school “Čapljina” as well as Secondary school “Hemijska” from Tuzla. The winners presented their videos and ideas for which they will be awarded with an ecological trip for team members to a nature park and outdoor and indoor plants and green design elements for the schools. 

In addition, due to a large number of creative and high quality proposals, special mention awards from the jury have been awarded to primary schools “Bijelo polje” from Mostar, “Georgi Stojkov Rakovski” from Banja Luka and “Aleksa Šantić” from Sarajevo while a special mention award from the public votes was awarded to “Druga osnovna škola” from Brčko given that the winners were chosen by the jury and public voting.

The competition has allowed students to create ideas and projects for implementation of the principles of the circular economy in their schools and local communities, promoting waste reduction, material reuse and recycling. The ideas presented showcased high creativity and proposals to engage schools and communities in contributing to environmental protection, in line with the key European Union policies on environmental protection.

Europe House is a long-term communications project of the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, superseding the EU Info Centre in BiH, with its central office in Sarajevo (Europe House) and a network of Europe House Info Points across Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a project, Europe House provides relevant information on programmes, projects, institutions and policies of the European Union, as well as on relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union.  Europe House network activities include organisation of informative and inspiring events across BiH, with the aim of promoting European values in BiH. For more information please visit:  www.europehouse.ba.