Pionki is a nice town with over 20,000 residents. It is located 100km from the capital city of Poland - Warsaw, right in the heart of Kozienicka Forest. The unique location of the town makes it possible for the inhabitants to admire breathtaking landscapes as well as take a closer look at the diverse wildlife. What attracts people to Pionki is clean air and well-developed sport and recreation infrastructure which encourages to rest and relax.

Junior High School No. 1 in Pionki is situated in the central part of our town and is surrounded by green trees and high blocks of flats. We are an eco-friendly school. Nothing goes to waste here. We collect cans, papers, glass, bottles, metals and batteries. Thanks to              good promotion of our ideas, we managed to involve the whole local community in these actions. With the active involvement of the students, teachers and parents, we encouraged people to recycle their waste materials and put them into special bins placed in our school. The students and teachers of Junior High School No. 1 in Pionki were distributing leaflets informing the residents of our town of such actions, and that is why we have found such allies as housing association, banks and offices workers as well as pubs, shops and plant owners. Last year our school was awarded the 3^rd place in a paper collecting competition. We also take part in a competition organised by RECAL and focused on collecting aluminium cans and             a competition organised by REBA focused on collecting used batteries. Since September we have collected 394kg of batteries! Last year we have allocated all the money from our recycling actions for the school flag. This year we bought 32 maths coursebooks and we would like to buy some chemistry textbooks as well as the periodic table.

Junior High School No. 1 in Pionki has its own Ecological Code which contains the rules our students follow during the lessons, breaks and at home. We switch off unnecessary appliances and turn the taps off. We conserve heat because our school is insulated and new windows are fitted.

Our students take part in eco-friendly lessons which present them what plastic is and what influence it has on air, soil and water; what benefits they may have by segregating rubbish; the main causes and results of damaging the natural environment.

To promote our actions in Pionki we have organized many competitions such as the one for the best eco-friendly bag.  We were also looking for the nicest Rubbishpet - a mascot made of waste materials, and choosing the best eco-poem promoting recycling.  Our students were also taking part in a competition for the best poster entitled "Earth regained" which was to present the influence of civilization on the nature.

The students of Junior High School No. 1 in Pionki were awarded the 4^th place in                          a competition focused on creating a website about recycling cans. In our school we celebrated such holidays as Clean Up the World Weekend and Earth Day. Recently we have become              a member of  "Science is everywhere" partnership project run by eTwinning. We cooperate with schools from Romania, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France, Iceland and Poland. We prepare multi-media presentations, photos and projects to present the importance of science in our everyday life. Thanks to the participation in the project our school could virtually celebrate Water Day, Earth Day, Anti-smoking Day and The 1^st Day of Summer.

Our school is located at the edge of Kozienicka Forest and that is why the foresters and we have decided that our school will take care of some part of Pionki Nature Reserve. We clean our wood a few times a year and the students and teachers take part in courses organised by Forest Inspectorate in Kozienice. During the winter break we could take part in a trip presenting the impact which rubbish has on the forest. One of our students was awarded the first place in a photo competition entitled "What can you give the forest? What can the forest give you?"  Our students have also took part in such competitions as: "Is nature beautiful?", "Let's help amphibians" and "Clean up the forest".

We fulfill our dreams. To broaden our knowledge about our region and encourage more and more people to segregate rubbish, we are planning to create a Eco-museum of Kozienicka Forest with the central point in our school. We will organise a chamber called "Two worlds", mark out a 6km-long educational path and find a place for leading workshops and green lessons together with a garden with bulb and rock plants.

By all our actions we want to make people aware of the fact that if we change our bad habits and pay attention to such things as recycling, we will save our planet from destruction and we will live better lives.