From Waste to Warmth: How Students in Kahramanmaraş Turned Rubbish Into Hope

In the heart of Kahramanmaraş, a powerful example of environmental stewardship and community spirit is unfolding driven not by adults, but by middle school students. At Ayser Çalık Middle School, a creative project has shown how discarded materials can be given new purpose, while teaching young people valuable lessons about sustainability, compassion, and cooperation.

Reimagining Waste with Zero Waste Principles

Under the leadership of music teacher Tuğçe Aygün, students at Ayser Çalık Middle School launched a recycling-focused initiative that turned unused furniture such as old tables, cabinets and plastic crates into something meaningful: cosy, weather-proof homes for street cats. Using the Zero Waste approach as their guiding principle, students transformed these discarded items into 500 cat shelters.

Rather than simply reducing waste, the project gave it a tangible purpose, illustrating how everyday objects can be reinvented to serve their community and environment. It was more than an arts-and-crafts exercise it connected waste reduction with compassion for animals

Learning Through Doing

Throughout the creative process, students learned key life lessons: teamwork, responsibility, empathy and civic engagement. They cut, assembled, painted and decorated each shelter, turning what might have been rubbish into practical, colourful homes that provide warmth and protection for animals, especially important during the cold winter months.

This hands-on project helped students understand that caring for their environment and for living creatures can go hand-in-hand. Their dedication showed that environmental awareness isn’t an abstract concept but a lived practice.

A Community Effort

The project united students, teachers, and families. Parents supported the initiative by collecting unused materials, helping transport supplies, and even assisting in placing the finished shelters across the city. This collaboration strengthened ties between home and school and helped foster a lasting commitment to sustainability.

Once completed, the cat shelters were placed throughout Kahramanmaraş from neighbourhood streets and parks to other areas where stray cats are known to gather. Some were distributed with the help of a local veterinary clinic, ensuring vulnerable animals benefit most

A Message of Shared Responsibility

Reflecting on the experience, students and teachers emphasized that the project was about more than recycling it was a lesson in empathy and shared responsibility.

“We wanted to remind everyone that this world is not just for humans it is shared with all living beings. Even small actions can create big changes.”

Their work stands as an inspiring example of what can be achieved when education, environmental consciousness, and compassion come together. In Kahramanmaraş, waste was not just diverted from disposal it was transformed into warmth, shelter, and hope