Students sensitize children to environmental pollution caused by waste

Germans produce more than 600 kilos of waste per capita on average each year, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics authority. Reason enough for Michelle Braun, Franziska Schmidt and Sebastian Steger, three business administration students at THI Business School, to sensitize elementary school children to the issue. They organized two lessons at the Ringsee elementary school in which they provided information about waste disposal and avoidance as well as recycling. And they lent a hand themselves: On several occasions, they collected and disposed of trash lying around in public areas in and around Ingolstadt - a total of around 30 hours. They had their action credited as a social project for their studies.

"We wanted to make it clear to the children that there is no Planet B," the three students explain their motivation for the project. "Thus, it comes down to all of us to live more sustainably and produce less trash. And if trash can't be avoided, it should at least be disposed of correctly so it can be recycled."

Social projects like this one are mandatory in all bachelor's degree programs at THI Business School.