The children were ?encouraged? in activities of collecting the materials that could b recycled. Giving the fact that the collecting of a certain quantity was compulsory, quantity that increased with each year that passed, then the whole thing had no efficiency whatsoever because the parents would bring receipts and the money were to be received by the school. (O. U., 36)

In my first year of school, in my first grade, I was the tallest, one can imagine the impact that had on the others, I would terrorize them, I would frighten them, I would terrify them, finally... And there were some norms to be fulfilled, and I, being the head of my class, had to set an example... Because I had to bring around two bags, I do not know, a few kilos of conkers and stuff, which I would gather, for instance, from the Carol Park. I remember being chased by some guards because I trespassed some area, but it turned out all right. Yes, now I remember, the Technical Museum was in that area somewhere, and I was not allowed to go in. The thing with the conkers was explained to us the following way: these conkers were necessary for the pharmaceutics industry, that is, some substance was extracted out of these conkers, substance that would end up in the finite product, that is, in the medicine. I do not see the logic behind it, why should we endlessly gather all those conkers, where were all these conkers stored, what happened to them if they were not used in some way or another... (S. C., 5)

We had a limit of kilos per month and, because the newspapers were lighter, we would put in the bag some brick that we could find in the schoolyard ? until they realized the trick and started to check (up until then, they just weighed them and that was it). (O. S., 120)

I do not know about the other classes, but I remember that we did not gathered jars, but this was also explained to us, jars were recycled. That is, in a nutshell, once the jar with stew or something else was finished, one should take it to some recycling center, and the jar, after it was indeed ? probably ? washed, let us hope, would end up in commerce, with another stew, or with something else. (S. C., 5)

If one did not gather bottles and jars, one had to pay some fee; if one did not gather waste paper, it was the same. All sort of stuff was gathered: old iron things, medicinal plants, conkers, and acorns. I would gather conkers with my father who used to live on Calea Victoriei. (114)