The Tetra Pak carton collecting competition encourages schoolchildren, teachers and parents to develop a good habit of segregating cartons at both school and household levels. — Photo courtesy of Tetra Pak

HÀ NỘI — Tetra Pak in collaboration with Hà Nội’s education and training and natural resources and environment departments launched a carton collecting competition for primary schools and kindergartens in Hà Nội on Monday.

The competition is aimed to encourage schoolchildren, teachers and parents to develop good habits of carton segregating and collecting at both household level and at school to protect the environment.

From November 2020 to the end of January 2021, schools can participate in any of Tetra Pak’s three contests including: “Top carton collector” for schools with the highest volume of collected cartons; “Most clean & tidy UBC Corner” for schools that are the most creative in folding and stacking cartons to optimise space as well as keeping their used beverage carton (UBC) corner tidy and clean to ensure hygiene for collection; and “Most inspirational speaker” for primary students to speak about the importance of segregating waste at home and school.

“Tetra Pak’s School Recycling Programme has promoted the habit of waste separation at school for 800,000 students. We expect schoolchildren to maintain this good habit at home as well. The carton collecting competition offers teachers and parents an opportunity to encourage schoolchildren to practise carton separation at home, bringing to schools for collecting and recycling,” said Lý Quỳnh Trang, Director of Sustainability, Tetra Pak Vietnam.

Automatic water purifiers from Tetra Pak and Packing Recycling Organisation Vietnam (PRO Vietnam) will be presented to competition winners as prizes so that schoolchildren will have access to safe and clean drinking water during their school time.

The competition is part of Tetra Pak’s School Recycling, a programme on classifying, segregating and recycling used cartons, that has been implemented in Hà Nội in the 2019-20 school year. In the programme, school children are instructed on the simple steps of unfolding the four corners of used cartons, flattening them, sticking covers on carton openings and placing them into dustbins for collection. The used packages are then collected periodically to be recycled into useful products. The total volume of cartons collected in the 2019 – 20 school year has reached up to 269 tonnes, equivalent to roughly 27 million cartons. — VNS