Division of Environment (ENVR) has held winter camp annually since 2013 for students to understand more about environmental issues with first-hand experience from a lively perspective.

“I’M LOVING EAT” ENVR Winter Camp 2016 brought students through a journey of fair trade and food waste recycling from 6 to 8 January 2016.   

They first visited Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park to get a taste of sea breeze and observe little marine creatures like corals, sea urchins and sea cucumbers as well as mangroves, the ecosystem along costal oceanic areas.  All of these are precious and will no longer exist if we do not protect them from human pollution.

At the first night, students became chefs to design green menus of healthy diet and compete for the “Green Master Chef”.  They made up very creative menus which might turn into delicious dishes. 

In the next morning, students visited Crossroads Foundation, a NGO collects and donate goods to people in need and promotes fair trade. Students were asked to play the role as poor people who tried to make and sell paper bags for a living.  It’s really hard for them to buy enough food and pay for medical care or education without fair trade.  People in struggling economies are often exploited by middlemen who offer an unreasonably low price to buy their products which keeps them in poverty even they work very hard. Thus fair trade is important for farmers, craftsmen and workers to earn what they deserve for.   

In the afternoon, they visited Hong Kong Organic Waste Recycling Centre to experience the food waste recycling process and tie-dye a tote bag with onion peel which looked great. Food waste will not be wasted if upcycling is done with the support of both public and private sectors.   

Students then played a stimulation game to understand how every green act affect a person’s whole life from birth, study and work and so on.

On the last day, students put themselves in the shoes of different stakeholders and participated in a discuss forum on the topic of reducing and handling food waste to further strengthen what they have learnt about food waste recycling in these few days.