RECYCLING PROGRAMS FROM ENGINEERING FOR STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

In today's world, the need to take care of our environment and reduce our footprint on it is increasingly essential. Although the universities have recycling programs inside the campus, including collection sites, in our country, Colombia, there are no programs from the university aimed at motivating the work of recycling by students and their families inside their homes. To create awareness in each student and involve their family members, the recycling program at home was created, which has academic recognition through additional voluntary evaluations. Our project is based on three types of activities, which are supported by programs by private companies, unfavorably these programs have not been widely disseminated nor are they remembered among people as would be desired. Therefore, many of our students who start the program were unaware of the existence of these programs and the potential for action that they could have in their environment. The three recycling programs are plastic bottles filled with single-use plastic (“botella de amor” = “bottle of love”) to create furniture with recycled material for use in schools, plastic caps (“tapitas para sanar” = “caps to heal”) for a foundation that makes treatment of children with cancer, and recycling of used cooking oil (“manos verdes” = “green hands”) for the manufacture of soaps and candles. This document shows the process of conception, creation, and implementation of the campaign, the results obtained both from the students and within the families, together with the satisfaction, involvement, and participation of the students. Also, the project promotes the development of communication skills for engineers.