Did you know that, according to Eurostat, households in the European Union produce more than 30 million tonnes of food waste every year, accounting for more than half of all bio-waste in the EU? A large portion of this waste could be turned into valuable compost — a natural fertilizer that restores soil, supports plant growth, and reduces the need for chemicals. Even more fascinating: thanks to worms and microorganisms, composting functions as a small ecosystem of its own! This was exactly the topic covered during the hands-on training “School composting“, held by Sunce’s educators on April 1st and 2nd, 2025, for representatives of educational institutions from Podgorica and the Municipality of Zeta working in the area of Skadar lake National park.
Among the 20 participants attending the two-day training, most were primary school teachers, but representatives of civil society organizations also took part, including Parks Dinarides, Zero Waste Montenegro, and NP Skadarsko jezero, in whose premises the training was held.
Working with the school composting program
The training was made possible thanks to representatives of Parks Dinarides, who prepared a project to introduce composting into educational institutions.
The Parks Dinarides network consists of 105 protected areas from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Slovenia, and Serbia. Members of Parks Dinarides also include individuals, nature lovers and long-time friends of the network, according to its official website. The Parks Dinarides – Network of protected areas of the Dinarides was founded in Podgorica at the end of 2014.
During the training, the educators followed the School composting program, an educational program for primary school teachers and students (Golem, Maja; Radman, Margita; Medunić Orlić, Gabrijela. 2021. Educational Program for Teachers and Primary School Students “School Composting”. Association Sunce. 45 pages).
Workshops included in the program are:
What is Composting?, Let’s Build a compost bin, How will this work?, You can compost too!, Me – The teacher, Integrating composting into school lessons, So, how did It go?, and Final celebration.
Participants were introduced to Sunce, its fields of work, and the activities of the Education and Information Department. We then covered the topic of responsible waste management with an emphasis on composting, and participants got to know one another through the participatory method Partner Interviewing.
Practical part of the training: building a compost bin
Next, we moved on to the practical activity of building a compost bin. In just a few simple steps, participants assembled the frame, collected branches and leaves, and arranged them into a compost heap. The location for the compost bin was chosen right next to the Skadar Lake visitor center, alongside containers for separately collected waste such as paper and plastics.
On the second day, we focused on practical group work. Using different participatory methods, we developed ideas for promoting the compost bin, for motivating students and colleagues to take part, and for determining the first steps after the training. We used methods such as Starbursting, Small group work, Group interview, decision-making by scoring, and others.
Examples of participatory methods we used can also be found in our Manual for school and extracurricular work with children and youth (Pröpsting S., Medunić-Orlić G., Radman M., 2015. Participate in Sustainable Development – Understand, Implement, Shape).
Participant satisfaction and future steps
The evaluation showed that participants were extremely satisfied with the training, especially with the practical work and the participatory methods, a a refreshing change from the traditional trainings they were used to. This training represents an important step toward implementing sustainable practices in educational institutions and spreading environmental awareness among young people.
