Collecting plastic

School Name:    Tode Hadzi-Tefov Primary School                               Pionerska 24, Kavadarci                               Macedonia Contact Details: Elizabeta Filipova                               delizabata@yahoo.com                               todehadzitefov@yahoo.com                               phone: +389 76 224 544                              Slavica Janevska                              slavicaf2001@yahoo.com                              todehadzitefov@yahoo.com                              phone: +389 43 410 305 Region & Country:  Kavadarci, Macedonia Business Name:  Collecting plastic litter for recycling Business Activity: We will collect the plastic bottles that pupils always throw away in the bin at school. We will collect the plastic litter in a special box for plastic litter and sell it to a Company that recycles plastic in Kavadarci, Macedonia

1.Description of your School Enterprise: Tell us a bit about the product or service you intend to supply & what makes it special or different. We will collect the plastic bottles pupils always  throw away in a special box for plastic litter and sell it to a Company that recycles plastic in Kavadarci, Macedonia. Usually children throw the plastic bottles in the bin and it is thrown away, it is not used for recycling. We want to teach the children that even the plastic litter can be used after you consume the drink in the bottles and you can be paid for collecting and selling it. Pupils will learn that the Company  that buys the plastic recycles it and the same plastic is reused. The money we make will be spend on covering the pupils’ school trips. (At the moment, students’ parents pay for their children’s school trips)

2.Background Please tell us about your school, why you decided to enter the School Enterprise Challenge, and why you have chosen to start the kind of enterprise you described above. Tode Hadzi-Tefov Primary School has never participated in the School Enterprise Challenge before. We found out about this Challenge from The British Council schools on line and we believe that it will be a very useful   way to teach the students that they, the students, can have their own School Enterprise and use the money they will earn to pay their school trips. 700 students study at our school and all the students, their parents and all the teachers  will participate in this project. Students  are  from 6 to  14 years old. Our local community supports our project.  Zorica V’ckova, the local Advisor for Education (the Mayor’s Advisor  for Education),  gave me the idea for this project.  Zorica V’ckova and  the  Mayor of Kavadarci  signed  a  letter  to British Council schools on line approving my idea for my school  to become a member of British Council schools on line and Zorica V’ckova  is helping me with all the projects that are connected with British Council schools on line. She will help me to promote this project and  your  Challenge in our region. Our school will be an example to all the other schools in our region. This  project  will help the Company  for  plastic recycling to buy plastic  litter  from Kavadarci, the students to pay  their  school  trips expenses and the children will be able to  understand the benefit of having their  own School  Enterprise.

3.Operational plan: What are the key steps you will take to put your business plan into action? How will you produce or deliver your product or service? The principal will sign a contract with the Company for recycling plastic in Kavadarci, Macedonia. The Company will give the school special boxes for collecting plastic litter. All the students at our school will put the plastic litter into this special box. The Company will collect the box litter once a week. The Company will pay the school’s invoice one week after  the Company collects the litter. The parents will be included in the project too. They will also collect the plastic litter from their homes and throw it into the School’s box for collecting plastic litter. All the money the pupils  earn, will be spend on school trips. Pupils have organized school trips but they, the students,  must  pay  for   themselves. This is an excellent  opportunity to cover these expenses.

4.Market Research & Target Market: What market research have you undertaken & what did you learn from it? Who will buy your product or service & why? We talked to Zorica V’ckova, the local Advisor for Education, (she, Zorica V’ckova gave us this idea and is helping us to achieve our aim) and the owners of the Company for plastic recycling (the owners are foreign investors in Macedonia). The Company  for recycling plastic is newly built in Kavadarci, Macedonia. The Company buys plastic litter  from everywhere in Macedonia. The company  is very interested in this idea because their transport  expenses will be lower. Tode Hadzi-Tefov is in Kavadarci and the Company will not have to spend  a  lot of money to pay for the transport. The Company is willing to buy all the plastic litter that all the schools in Kavadraci can collect, if the schools would like to collect plastic litter. Tode Hadzi-Tefov is the first school in Kavadarci that will collect and sell plastic litter to this Company. We would be happy  if all the schools in Kavadarci follow our example. We will make sure that all the schools realize the benefit  that our school will have from this project. We believe that our students will be enthusiastic about the project  because the money will be spent on pupils’ school trips.

5.Competitors & Competitive Advantage: Do you have any competitors? If so how and why will you be better than them? The Company  for recycling plastic buys  plastic litter from everywhere in Macedonia  but  the company has to pay for  the  transport. Tode Hadzi-Tefov is in Kavadarci and the Company will not have  a  lot  of  transport  expenses. The  transport  expenses will  be  minimum. We will sell the plastic  litter  for  a  lower  price than our competitors. The principal will sign a contract with the company, the local government supports our project and so is the Company, and we will have  a Company that will guarantee that will buy  the  plastic  litter as long as we are willing to collect it.

6.Sustainability & Business Development: How will you ensure the sustainability of your school-based enterprise? How do you intend to develop your school-based enterprise in the months & years to come? Tode Hadzi-Tefov’s principal will sign a contract with the Company for  plastic  recycling and the Company will buy our plastic litter as long as we are willing to collect plastic litter. The Company has to buy plastic litter from all the cities in Macedonia because they do not have enough plastic litter in Kavadarci to recycle. We believe that the children will continue to collect plastic litter during the following years because pupils’ school trips will be paid with this money. We believe that all the other schools in Kavadarci, Macedonia will be willing to follow our example when they see the outcome.

7.People, Profit & Planet: Which of the People, Profit, Planet criteria does your school-based enterprise fulfil and why? People:  the Company for plastic recycling employees will  have cheaper  plastic litter to recycle and they will have a greater guaranteed amount of plastic litter than they do now (the Company has to buy litter from other cities in Macedonia because there is not enough  litter for the Company to recycle) Profit:  Tode Hadzi-Tefov does not have to pay anything for starting the project because the Company will give us boxes for us to collect the plastic litter and the students will collect the plastic litter that would be thrown away anyway and it would not be used for anything afterwards (it would not be recycled). We will only have profit and we will not have any expenses. Planet:  We will  use plastic litter that would otherwise damage the environment

8.Sales & Marketing Plan: How will you make your potential customers aware that your product or service exists? What price will you sell your product/service at? How will you encourage customers to buy more? We talked to Zorica V’ckova, the local Advisor for Education, (she, Zorica V’ckova gave us this idea and is helping us to achieve our aim) and the owners of the Company for plastic recycling. The Company  for recycling plastic is newly built in Kavadarci, Macedonia. The Company buys plastic litter  from everywhere in Macedonia. The company  is very interested in this idea because their transport  expenses will be lower. Tode Hadzi-Tefov is in Kavadarci and the Company will not have to spend  a  lot of money to pay for the transport. The Company is willing to buy all the plastic litter that all the schools in Kavadraci can collect, if the schools would like to. Tode Hadzi-Tefov is the first school in Kavadarci that will collect and sell plastic litter to this Company. We would be happy  if all the schools in Kavadarci follow our example. We will make sure that all the schools realize the benefit  that our school will have from this project. We believe that our students will be enthusiastic about the project  because the money will be spent on pupil’s school trips. The principal will sign a contract with the Company which will guarantee that the Company will buy the plastic litter we collect, as long as we are willing to collect it. Zorica V’ckova, the local Advisor for Education, will announce the beginning of the project and all, the students, the parents and our community, will be familiarized with our project on the local TV. When we earn enough money to cover a school trip we will announce on the local TV that the school trip will be paid with the money from the School Enterprise.

9.Financing Strategy If there are costs entailed in starting up your enterprise, how do you intend to cover them? We will not have any costs to start the project. Everything is organized in advance. The Company for recycling plastic will give us boxes for us to collect the plastic litter and the students, their parents and the teachers will collect the plastic litter that they always  throw away ( it is not recycled)