Bhubaneswar, April 14: Schoolchildren from the twin-cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar were encouraged to practice recycling of waste at a workshop held at Jaydev Bhawan this week.

Around 50 students from 12 schools attended the workshop titled 'Beauty out of waste'. It witnessed participation of students both from special and mainstream schools.

The students were given discarded paper plates on which they canvassed their imaginations. The butterflies caught fancy of some while nature became favourite topic of art for others. The plates were later tied in a circle.

An art installation was also created using discarded paper cups. An image of a globe was painted on which a window was created. Thereby it was shown how garbage thrown out of windows by negligent citizens chokes the sewerage system and pollutes the roads and finally the environment.

For the students, the experience was quite enriching. "When we don't want things we simply put them in trash but I learnt how it could be creatively used to produce art. Moreover, I also made friends and also witnessed the strong imagination power that differently-abed students have in them," said a student from Mother's Public School.

The students were taught the art of paper folding or Origami. Sculptor Adwaita Gadanayak, former secretary of Lalit Kala Akademi Rabi Narayan Rath and bronze artist Laxmidhar Rana also attended the workshop and interacted with the students.

The event was conducted by city-based organisation Swabhiman. "The primary aim behind holding the workshop was to create an environment where students from various backgrounds could come together, explore their imagination and in the process strengthen the bond between them," said project officer at Swabhiman, Swadhin Khatua.