Results of research on circularity conducted by over 1.200 students published
‘Circular Agents - Laboratory of the Future’ is the free course of civic education for lower secondary schools in Lombardy, to help young students learn the actions and behaviours to favour the circular and sustainable transition: this is the aim of this project, devised by the Circular Economy Lab and implemented by WeSchool with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo and Fondazione Cariplo, through the Education Ecosystem and Global Value Programs structure.
The educational path was developed through preparatory modules consisting of videos, fact sheets, readings and other in-depth materials on the theme of circularity and saw the involvement of 65 schools and the participation of over 1,200 students. Thanks to laboratory and cooperative teaching activities, the participants learned to train analytical and logic-deductive skills, team working, active citizenship and awareness of the importance of circular transition.
On 21 May, the first edition of the project came to an end and, during the closing event, the report ‘Circularity in the Lombardy population’ was presented, summarising the results of the survey carried out by the students as part of the project.
Among the main findings from the data analysis, 69% of the respondents claim to have heard of circular economy outside of the survey, while 31% heard of it for the first time. 44% stated that they ‘sometimes’ practice circularity, while 43% ‘often’ practice circularity actions. Only 7% practice circular actions ‘always’ and the remaining 6% ‘rarely’.
The results show that the most commonly performed circular action is separate waste collection, followed by the habit of saving water and energy, the use of public transport and the purchase of products with reusable packaging.
Finally, among the non-circular actions the most commonly performed is taking the car to get around, followed by buying products packaged in plastic.