Many students brought plastic waste and old clothes to participate in the festival ‘Make A Change to Weekend’ with the theme ‘Creativity for a zero-emission future’. In addition, the programme also brings a series of meaningful events, contributing to promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle as well as changing bad habits that affect the community.

A number of environmentally-friendly products made from clean, recycled materials and high technology are displayed at the festival. Photo: H.L

One of the highlights of the festival is presentations and the exhibitions of renewable energy solutions and introduction of environmentally-friendly products. According to Ms. Le Thi Phuong Thao, the representative of Green Da Nang, with the message ‘One small thing, ten thousand green points’, this organisation participated in the festival with the activity ‘swap trash for gifts’.

Accordingly, the group collects waste paper, milk cartons, cans, plastic cups, plastic straws, food containers, phone cases and transportation vehicle components. For every 1kg of waste paper, used milk cartons, everyone will receive 3 GP points (Green Points), similar to 1GP for 5 cans and 5GP for each kg of plastic cups, plastic straws, food containers, phone cases.

Based on the number of GP points converted, everyone will receive paper bags, bamboo pens, recycled coasters, photo frames, notebooks, cloth bags, books, organic laundry detergent or organic dishwashing liquid.

During the festival, the Green Da Nang received dozens of kilograms of recyclable waste. This amount of waste will be classified by the group and transferred to a number of recycling partners such as TetraPak, Green Points and Noda.

Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, a student of Business Administration, the University of Economics, a member school of the Da Nang University (UD), with 4kg of waste paper, you can exchange a bamboo pen worth 10GP and save 2 GP points for Green Da Nang’s upcoming collection activity.

“From the moment I received notice of registration to participate in the festival, I was very excited and looked forward to this event. Indeed, in addition to the activity of swapping trash for gifts, we have more opportunities to access a number of environmentally-friendly products made from clean, recycled materials and applying high technology such as paintings, dishwashing liquid, food preservation packaging or roofing sheets. The projects are all very interesting, attracting the participation of the youth community across the country”, Hien said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Huong Tra, a student at Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, said that after having completed the National High School Graduation Exam, she intended to participate in programmes and events related to environmental protection activities and she was fortunate to become a member of The Talkie Camp English project participating in the Make A Change to Weekend 2024 festival.

Tra said, she and the project members understood that after each exam there would be a lot of leftover paper, so they looked for recipes to make paintings from recycled paper.

“After consulting with professionals, the project team brought to the festival a recipe for making paintings using recycled paper. Accordingly, the paper, after being crumpled and dipped in water to create moisture, will be mixed with glue and sticked onto the painting and covered with colour. Depending on the idea, the artist can create unique, strange and personal paintings," Tra added.

“Make a Change to Weekend’ is an annual event organised by the Viet Nam - UK Institute for Research and Executive Education (VNUK), the UD and CRIMSON Education Viet Nam. This year, the festival attracted 12 participating units and clubs that displayed their products and provided recipes for processing waste into useful items.

Ms. Doan Minh Thu, the Manager of Innovation Space at VNUK said, ‘Make a Change to Weekend’ 2024 wants to create a space for learning, creativity and finding ‘green ideas’ for students, thereby promoting the spirit of responsible living through environmental protection activities, climate change adaptation, conservation and the sustainable development of natural resources.

In addition to booths displaying products, projects, and initiatives for a zero-emission future implemented by students, the festival also attracted the participation of units with many years of operation in environment protection and sustainable development such as Viartech, Datbike Vietnam, Green Danang, Green Earth, Noda and Fuwa3e. This is also an opportunity for the city’s youth to access environmentally-friendly products, thereby becoming more aware of waste classification and promoting creativity for a zero-emission future.

Reporting by HUYNH LE - Translating by A.THU