High school students’ project calls for environmental protection

As an environmental community project operating for nine years, Striped Project was founded by high school students with many activities, including collecting old newspapers, books and clothes, to raise community awareness in protecting the environment and saving resources.
Striped Project members collect old clothes.
Striped Project members collect old clothes.

In June 2024, the project’s team collected more than 3.6 tonnes of paper, 655kg of books and countless clothes, and bottles, contributing to calling for the community to pay greater attention to environmental protection.

Striped Project is an environmental community project founded in June 2015, by high school students in Hanoi, to partially overcome the challenges in the wasteful use of paper and other wood resources.

Since its inception, the project has featured a series of events to raise awareness of environmental issues for students and parents at many schools, while attracting much attention from businesses and organisations, as well as the media.

This June, the project team launched the ‘Luom Day I- Marelius’ collection event on June 2, calling for donations of old bottles, books, newspapers and other types of paper and used clothes.

The collection points were set up in many areas in Hanoi, such as Royal City in Thanh Xuan District, the Richland Southern Tower Building in Cau Giay District, and Dong Da Secondary School in Dong Da District.

After being gathered, these materials will be processed or recycled into useful items for sale at the Gio Phe recycling fair, scheduled this November. Some of these recycled items will become gifts for children during the project's charity trips, which are scheduled for February 2025.

The collection event aims to spread the message of environmental protection to everyone and encourage them to donate unused materials for recycling.

Nguyen Dang Ha Anh, a student from Hanoi Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, who is head of the Striped Project's organising committee, shared that the collection event aims to spread the message of environmental protection to everyone and encourage them to donate unused materials for recycling.

“We also want to create an opportunity for students to join a useful activity this summer,” she said.

Ha Anh revealed that the event's name “Marelius” was inspired by ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas’, a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne and the Subnautica action-adventure survival game.

Through the event, Striped Project hopes to create a Marelius journey that brings people back to nature, thus tightening the link, and calling for a joint effort to protect nature with the smallest actions, such as collecting bottles, used clothes and books, newspapers and other types of paper.

Mai Tue Linh, a visitor to the event, shared that she heard about ‘Luom Day Marelius’ through her friends, and found interest in the project’s message.

Linh brought old books and clothes for donation, hoping these items would be recycled, and bring value to the community.

Members of the Stripped Project present gifts to disadvantaged children in Tuyen Quang Province.

Members of the Stripped Project present gifts to disadvantaged children in Tuyen Quang Province.

In addition to the collection event, the Striped Project includes the Gio Phe recycling fair and the Striped Tour, a summer education programme to raise children’s environmental protection awareness.

During their Volunteer Day 2024, the project’s members headed to Diem Chuong Kindergarten in Chuong Village, Hung Loi Commune, Yen Son District, Tuyen Quang Province.

In addition to hosting environmental education and entertainment activities for children at the kindergarten, they also presented gifts to local disadvantaged children.

Through this event, the project’s team conveyed the message, that we not only need to live in harmony with nature but also need to be aware of appreciating, preserving and beautifying the environment.