T
he importance of environmental educatio n is widely recognized worldwide: an important objective is that the
citizens are accustomed to apply the best available practices in their life , while ask ing the administration and the
government to gradually enforce measures lead ing to a reduction of the environmental impact and to a more
sustainable lifestyle. This requires a formation starting at an early age: however, in Italy the relevant indications from
the National Curriculum are still limited and do not suggest explicitly the performance of any pr actical activity ,
tailored on the specific school setting . This inadequacy of the Curriculum becomes particularly apparent in cases
where other concerns are present, for example the areas in the Marche region affected by the 2016 earthquake : here,
the need to resum e a day by day routine put a kind of \u201cdamper\u201d on other questions, such as environmental issues .
This had an effect also i n children\u2019s life on this question, school needs to take a stand , which is the objective of this
study . This work concerns an approach to environmental education in a multi classes primary school context (age
6 10) in a small village school, located in the Central Apennine in Italy. This is performed through an experience
carried out by investigating the behavior towards waste p roduction of the community, as perceived by children at
school. It is therefore articulated through the application of 4R (Respect, which encompasses Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle) applying and extending the indications from the Italian National Curriculum. Th e project leads also to an
experience of self production of objects by the use of waste, to improve their awareness of the possibilities included
in their upcycling. Feedback on the experience is finally acquired from the children and discussed, especially in the
sense of creating future citizens with a more sensible and reasonable behavior towards the environment and leading
possibly to zero waste strategies in their family and work setting. The data were analy z ed using thematic analysis
and different them es about waste production were singled out
