“Plant Trees, Not Plastics”: Winners

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Last year, we invited young people from Eastern and Southern African countries to share stories about the innovative actions that they, or their communities, are taking to address the impacts of plastic waste. We were heartened by the interest, engagement, and creativity to tackle this challenge!

Hundreds of submissions were reviewed by a jury, and the top 10 finalists were chosen based on authenticity, impact, and replicability. Thousands of people from around the world voted and rated their favorites online. We are now thrilled to announce the five winners.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the competition!

The Five Winners

Question Title

* Johnmary Kavuma, Uganda

A group of refugees (women) compacting plastic bottles to make them into bricks to be used as building materials. Trained to turn locally available resources (plastic waste) into building materials.

A house made of plastic waste on the walls, roofed by car tires cut into pieces, and the floor was made of a mixture of eggshells and polyethylene bags. Youth trained in the skills of recycling and upcycling constructing homes for marginalized groups of people in Mpigi, Uganda. At the end of the day these youth can be able to pass on the skills of repurposing plastic waste into eco-homes.

Question Title

* Gillian Ndlovu, Zimbabwe

My Project; BLISS (Bolstering Locally-grown towards an Innovative and Sustainable Society) is championing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in two Zimbabwean Primary Schools through sustainable agriculture. In this picture, Chipindura Primary School students had finished an informative workshop and are holding seven SDGs cards representing the areas that Project BLISS addresses.

Project BLISS is a hands-on educational movement. Therefore, soon after the workshop, the students received 30 fruit trees to plant towards the refurbishment of their school orchard that was ravaged by a fire. In the picture. various project stakeholders holding tree seedlings just before the tree planting event held on the 5th of November 2021. A wise man once said, “Once you carry your own water, you will learn the value of every drop.” The students at Chipindura Primary School will never be the same again because as they were planting these trees. Project BLISS simultaneously planted a seed of “sustainability stewardship” in their hearts and minds. In the picture, future leaders watch as their schoolmate waters her newly planted tree as they eagerly wait to do the same!

Question Title

* Myles Mvula, Zambia

Friends of the Earth Club at Siavonga Secondary School, Southern Province of Zambia is committed to contributing to sustainable waste management by using recycled waste to create art.

To promote tree planting amongst students at Siavonga Secondary school, Friends of the Earth Club encourages students to plant a tree and hang his or her name on it. Sixteen trees with pupils' names have been planted. This initiative enables students to come back years later and remember their contribution to mother earth. Friends of the Earth Club also manages an orchard in which they have planted 162 fruit trees (mangoes, guavas, lemon, avocados, pawpaw, and bananas) and they are also promoting water conservation /management by watering their fruit trees through the water drainage.

Question Title

* Angela Gathoni, Kenya

Trees4kids Program
To help address the huge amount of deforestation in the area, Colobus Conservation works with forest adjacent community schools to conserve and regenerate indigenous forests. Through this special program, each pupil who attends our education workshop is gifted a tree to plant near their schools and homes. Each pupil is responsible for planting and nurturing the trees during their lifetime in school. We provide support for the initial planting, and monitor the progress over time.

Education Program with community schools
Colobus Conservation center holds more than 36 education workshops for children aged 12-17 years annually. The program aims to instill empathy and facilitate behavior change regarding environmental conservation and utilization at a tender age. In this workshop, skilled trainers use storytelling and nursery rhymes in an interactive session to teach about the forest and primate conservation. They are also educated on how to plant and grow a tree. Beach Cleanup
Colobus Conservation through partnering with ICC Kenya was part of the underwater and onshore beach cleanup. This exercise involved partners from both North Coast and South Coast working together to conserve the beach and ocean ecosystem. A total of 149 volunteers joined us on the day and over 100 bags of trash and plastic waste were collected, this was approximately over 300kg in weight!

Question Title

* Vallery Onyango, Kenya

We worked together with the youth of Homabay County, Kenya, to create awareness on the effects of single use plastics on our environment and the Lake Victoria by participating in a cleanup activity—and later a Twitter storm—to reach more people in the global “no single-use plastic” campaign. The #savelakevictoria campaign is ongoing online, and we keep people informed on the plastic waste menace to encourage behavioral change.

We created a big fish with plastics inside to show the effects of single use plastics on marine life, like fish. Since Homabay county's staple food is fish, we used the fish as symbolism and something that people could relate to in order to encourage behavior change immediately. People now take it as a center of knowledge. We encourage usage of alternatives to single use plastics like calabash pots to fetch water. We also involve the community in conservation talks. Indigenous knowledge rekindled is very important in solving the plastic menace.


A house made of plastic waste on the walls, roofed by car tires cut into pieces, and the floor was made of a mixture of eggshells and polyethylene bags.	Youth trained in the skills of recycling and upcycling constructing homes for marginalized groups of people in Mpigi, Uganda. At the end of the day these youth can be able to pass on the skills of repurposing plastic waste into eco-homes.


To promote tree planting amongst students at Siavonga Secondary school, Friends of the Earth Club encourages students to plant a tree and hang his or her name on it. Sixteen trees with pupils' names have been planted. This initiative enables students to come back years later and remember their contribution to mother earth.	Friends of the Earth Club also manages an orchard in which they have planted 162 fruit trees (mangoes, guavas, lemon, avocados, pawpaw, and bananas) and they are also promoting water conservation /management by watering their fruit trees through the water drainage.


We created a big fish with plastics inside to show the effects of single use plastics on marine life, like fish. Since Homabay county's staple food is fish, we used the fish as symbolism and something that people could relate to in order to encourage behavior change immediately. People now take it as a center of knowledge.	We encourage usage of alternatives to single use plastics like calabash pots to fetch water. We also involve the community in conservation talks. Indigenous knowledge rekindled is very important in solving the plastic menace.