Recycling one ton of paper can save 14 mature trees. Recycling old metal can significantly improve both air and water quality by reducing the amount of hazardous waste dumped in land fills. Reducing, separating and recycling waste can have all kinds of environmental benefits—including in Cyprus.

Through a grant from the USAID-funded Supporting Activities that Value the Environment (SAVE) program, the Biologists Association and a local Nicosia high school are implementing a multifaceted project meant to raise awareness about the need to decrease waste and to make waste separation and recycling part of students’ everyday lives. As part of the project, students and teachers visited local dump sites, organized a slogan competition, participated in a series of informative seminars during the week of December 27 and initiated a recycling program at a local high school. First prize for the slogan competition went to the slogan, “A single waste recycled, the world changed”.

SAVE small grants support activities that further SAVE’s overall objective of protecting and promoting the island’s natural and cultural heritage resources. Like all U.S.-funded programs in Cyprus, SAVE is aimed at facilitating reunification of the island, including through encouraging sound environmental management.