IREM SAYIN’S TEAM

    The sun was shining brightly in the sky. As summer slowly gave way to autumn, neighborhood children were enjoying their last game before school started. There was joy on the streets, and laughter spilled over into the parks. Eylül had joined in this joy with her friends and started playing hide-and-seek. She stopped suddenly as she tried to run and hide in the farthest corner of the park. In front of her was a large pile of garbage filled with randomly thrown old items, crumpled bags and broken waste. However, in the middle of this pile, an object reflecting the sunlight caught her attention. Curious about what it was, she picked up a long stick from the ground and started to sort through the garbage. Before long, she came across a dusty and rusty metal box.

    A sentence written in faded letters was visible on the box: “Be a friend to nature, recycle!” Many questions had appeared in Eylül’s mind. Why was this box here, in this state? What was it doing in such an irrelevant and dirty place with a meaningful message on it? He picked up the box among the dust blown by the wind. Another fading writing on another side of the box caught his attention: “I am transforming it for my future.”

NAHİDE TURHAL CEYLAN’S TEAM

    The curiosity inside him was growing. He couldn’t help but understand what it was.

    Eylül was overcome by curiosity and took the rusty box from the garbage pile without caring about the dirt around. Since the box's lock was also rusty, she had no trouble opening it. However, the contents of the box caused her great disappointment. Because there was nothing in the box that was no different from garbage, or so she thought. Eylül was very upset and found it strange that the box that said to be friends of nature contained things that were not very friendly to nature. Why would someone want us to recycle for our future and put these things that would harm nature here? Eylül's curiosity increased even more and she started to examine the contents of the box, but she could see nothing but an empty glass bottle, a rusty and long fork, a notebook with crumpled and torn pages, a headset that had become impossible to use, a broken mobile phone and a CD. She thought that a mother might have thrown away her child's old belongings and started walking to return the box to where she found it. As she walked, she noticed some writings on the items in the box.

DUYGU DEMİR’S TEAM

    The recycling symbol created using three arrows on the cover of the notebook caught Eylül’s attention. Unable to resist her curiosity any longer, Eylül put the box down and took the notebook out of the box, and noticed a warning message written in large fonts on the first page. The warning message read, “If you can’t recycle, upcycle.” Eylül, who was knowledgeable about recycling, didn’t know much about what “upcycle” meant. Perhaps she would find the answers she was looking for in this notebook. With this feeling, she immediately turned to the next page. On the other page, there was a note that said, “Don’t throw it in the trash, add it to life!” Eylül’s curiosity had increased and she turned another page. On that page, there was another note that said, “Small things change the world.” Eylül was completely confused. Eylül turned another page and caught a clue about the answer she was looking for. On the page she opened, there was a simple picture depicting a used canning jar being turned into a pencil case. Yes, the picture was simple, but the message that the picture gave was very important. Eylül also looked at the other pages. There were drawings from the beginning to the end of the notebook about reusing used materials, and these drawings showed that used materials were not garbage and could be turned into much more beautiful objects with a little effort. After examining all these drawings, she understood the meaning of the words “If you can’t recycle, upcycle” written on the first page of the notebook. Upcycling was reusing used materials and turning them into new objects. Eylül put the notebook back into the box with a lot of upcycling ideas forming in her mind. She picked up the CD that was shining like a mirror in the box.

SEYHAN ALTUNTAŞ’S TEAM

Driven by curiosity about what was inside the CD, Eylül took the box and rushed home. Her old computer struggled a bit but finally loaded the disc. A boy appeared on the screen, his confident voice filled with determination and the pride of being useful. His words echoed in Eylül’s ears:

“Hello! You might not know me, but I know you are listening with curiosity. I prepared this box for you—perhaps you are the hero of the future. We can build tomorrow by recycling and gaining, not by using and throwing away. You can turn old jeans into bags, torn t-shirts into hairbands, and broken chairs into flowerpots. Plastic bottles, tin cans, old magazines... they can all come to life with your imagination. Give materials a second chance, protect our world, and create new designs. Upcycle, share, and be mindful—the future is in your hands!”

Eylül was stunned. This old CD was a call to action from years ago, and upcycling suddenly felt much more meaningful. Excited to see what else lay inside, she turned back to the box. The old items that had seemed worthless moments ago now looked completely different. She began to examine each one, one by one.

NERGİS DUYMUŞ’S TEAM

 There were faint writings or symbols on every object: “Clean water” on the glass bottle, “Stop waste!” on the fork, “Listen to nature!” on the earphones, “Give the sound to nature!” on the phone screen.

    Eylül was now looking carefully at what was written on the objects and imagining how she could use them. The glass bottles had now turned into glasses from which she could drink drinking water. She started to put as much food as she could eat on her plate while eating; the fork was silently reminding her not to waste. Instead of the music she listened to while walking in nature, she was now listening to the sounds of nature. The sounds of birds, leaves, and wind had become songs for her. She decided to share her thoughts and actions with others in order to increase these sounds, to ensure that everyone heard them the way she did, and that everyone thought the way she did. When her phone rang, she began to listen to nature and think about what she should do.

SPAN CLAUDIA’S TEAM 

One day, Eylül, a 9th-grade student, brought a box to school filled with plastic bottles, paper, caps, and aluminum cans. Aytaç suggested they could make something useful out of them. Inspired, the children came up with eco-friendly ideas: making flower pots from bottles, mosaic art from caps, and recycled notebooks from paper. This activity boosted their creativity and environmental responsibility, showing them that waste can be valuable.

The entire school embraced the idea and brought unused materials from home. The response was overwhelming, bringing in ropes, buckets, egg cartons, and fabric pieces. Eylül and her friends distributed the tasks and materials. After much effort, they transformed the waste into flowers from egg cartons, yogurt-bucket flower pots, a plastic-spoon mirror, tin-can pencil cases, plastic-bottle toy cars, and rag dolls. They even crafted a decorative art piece from buttons and screws, and an incredible chandelier from an old straw hat. While having fun, the students successfully raised upcycling awareness across the whole school.