The ESC team volunteering project Bottles2Boats, Entrepreneurship + took place in April 2023 and lasted for 1 month. The aim of the activity was to create an international group of 16 volunteers who, in collaboration with the local volunteers’ team, would explore the values and parameters of circular economy and social entrepreneurship, while at the same time being introduced to good waste management practices and the 3Rs (Reduce-Recycle-Reuse).
This project was a continuation and upgrade of two previous projects, Bottles to Boats and Dream, which successfully used the tool of handmade transformation of plastic bottles in sailing boats, as a means of motivating young people with fewer opportunities and raising awareness of the local community about the consequences of the reckless use of disposable
plastic. Dream was the first attempt to build sailing boats of the optimist type from plastic bottles and introduced innovative machines such as the bicycle-shredder, the plastic knitting loom and of course the construction of boats.
Bottles to Boats built on this know-how and expanded its educational component, obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Education for its implementation in the Secondary Education. So here we have a good practice, how Erasmus + and the European Solidarity Corps projects can lead to long lasting results for local communities. At the moment, bottle 2 boats is a program that starts in the classroom, continues with the collection and slicing of plastic, then the construction of boats and finally the rewarding of students with sailing lessons. So, it combines environmental awareness, circular economy, social economy and improving the physical condition of young people.
The impact of these 2 projects and their contribution to the development of the local part of the program of K.A.N.E., “From Bottles to Boats” which is a continuous educational – environmental program was great and at the same time the characteristics of the generation Z, lead us to introduce a new innovation in the program. This is the concept of social entrepreneurship as the solution that combines employment and social impact, while offering solutions to young people with fewer opportunities. Thus, this project is fully relevant to the concepts of solidarity, social impact, the fight against youth unemployment and the provision of opportunities to the least favored, issues that are the core of the ESC program and the National Priorities.
The volunteers had the opportunity to learn about the previous B2B projects and immerse in the values of circular economy and social entrepreunership and to take part in activities such as:
– 3R workshops with the local community
– Meetings and brainstorming with actors in social entrepreneurship
– Environmental activities
– Informational activities
– Skills sharing
– Research for good practices
and came to their own conclusions about the importance of circular economy and social entrepreneurship.
Check out parts of their campaign:
Also, read the Guide to Circular Economy that the volunteers created here: b2b_booklet_final
The volunteers were hosted in Kalamata as part of the European Solidarity Corps program that is financed with the support of the European Union. This publication binds only its author and the E.E. is not responsible for any use of the information contained therein.
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