A Story of Upcycling for Nature objectives were built on the 7th EAP, living well within the limits of our planet, in addition to other education and environmental EU policies: • To protect, conserve and enhance the EU’s natural capital through devising innovative ways to produce secondary raw materials • To turn the EU into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy by creatively re-using waste materials • To protect nature and strengthen ecological resilience through creating secondary material resources to promote natural capital • To boost resource-efficient and a low-carbon economy by turning waste into a resource that improves the environmental performance of products over their life cycle and reducing the environmental impact of consumption • To safeguard EU citizens from environmental human health and wellbeing risks by devising strategies to minimize waste production and reduce toxic pollution from waste materials • To make EU cities more sustainable through an intercultural dialogue on how to tackle waste production to promote climate change • To foster an understanding of European active citizenship as an individual who is environmentally responsible • To promote intercultural climate change dialogue as a medium for social inclusion amongst the EU’s young people • To strengthen multiple literacy skills by practicing basic literacy skills and competencies. • To promote informal and non-formal methods of learning for personal and social change • To strengthen European connections and maximize future cooperation through the sharing of good practices There are three themes to this European project: Upcycling Waste, Nature and Literacy. Upcycling is the process of transforming unwanted materials into a new product. Nature refers to the natural world and everything that it encompasses including plants, birds, insects, animals, water etc. Nature allows for a balance in the world through the process of recurring creation, destruction and regeneration. Literacy is more than a set of reading and writing skills, observed as an integral part of one’s identity, literacy practices provide young people with a platform to understand and express. This Erasmus+ project will bring together 30 young people from the European Union with a focus on sharing ideas to upcycle waste materials for nature. Upcycling is one of the ways we can challenge the waste problem that plagues the world. The creative reuse of waste materials for better environmental value allows for an awareness of the impact of one’s carbon footprint on the world and instills creative solutions to environmental problems. This project will give the young people an opportunity to create balance with themselves and nature through the destruction of environmental damaging waste materials and the regeneration of these materials to give back to the natural world; as well as the creation of a children’s book to anchor the collection of upcycling for nature ideas exchanged during this European experience. The upcycling for nature project creates a space of harmony for young people and the environment, ignites awareness of climate change, questions a young person’s lifestyle and gives confidence to communicate meaning of daily living. A Story on Upcycling for Nature is a youth action programme of mobility for learning that intends to contribute towards environmental education for young people through active citizenship that is founded on European values. The development of this environmental education for young people will motivate them to be pro-active actors of social change; thus, challenging the current environmental paradigm. Through an attentive look at each countries local communities, the young people will evaluate waste management practices which will foster an intercultural dialogue on European waste management practices. Through actions of awareness the group of young European citizens will then come together to devise environmental innovations to promote a circular economy by upcycling waste materials to compliment nature through secondary raw material usage; in doing so, supporting the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan. Moreover, to encapsulate this intercultural dialogue and promote European active citizenship, the young people, thorough informal and non-formal learning methods, will create a European environmental awareness children’s book, that will uphold and promote EU environmental strategies outlined in Europe 2020 documents to be distributed in the young people’s local communities and made available online.