INTRODUCTION

The Laboratory of Special Vocational Education of Agios Dimitrios /Ε.Ε.Ε.ΕΚ. Αg.Dimitriou is a public Secondary School, under the Special Education Directorate of the Ministry of Education and is the largest category in the country. The School is attended by 240 adolescent students, aged 13 to 22 years, with mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities, who have completed a special or general primary school. The study in the school lasts for 6 years. The Ε.Ε.Ε.ΕΚ. provides vocational training in the specialties: ceramics, gardening, joinery, hydraulic, cooking-confectionery and sewing. E.E.E.EK Agiou Dimitriou participated and organized actions for the European Waste Reduction Week 2021 in collaboration with the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios, the Environmental Education Office of the Directorate of Secondary Education of the Southern Sector of Attica and the non-profit organization No Waste 21. Our actions are listed below:
We invited the schools of the Municipality of Agios Dimitrios to act together to form circular communities with the aim of transitioning to sustainable consumption and production patterns in order to achieve zero waste targets.
The students of the special education school visited the neighboring schools of formal education, placed posters and informed the students of all levels of education about their actions.
We organized experiential information and awareness actions with the object of reusing materials focusing on the ones that come from used household utensils and their final processing into useful objects such as lamps, frames, hangers, pots, etc. which were presented by students of the special education school and their partners through the digital webex platform. The activities included thematic sketches and karagiozis' performances, videos, songs and various environmental events in the context of socially oriented entrepreneurship.
The weekly presentations 22/11/21-26/11/21 were attended by schools from all education levels, education executives and representatives of the Local Government.
We have placed special collection bins in the partner schools for reusing household utensils and tools in order to encourage all target groups to be informed and to take part in reduction of the unnecessary consumption by focusing on "giving them a second chance".

We believe that small, local, fair, and inclusive circular communities can play a major role in pushing Europe towards
a sustainable future

Action coordinator: Efstratia Chryssou 

Special Education Teacher