A Zero Waste Curriculum 2 Table of Contents
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created by Don’t Throw Me Away!: A Zero Waste Curriculum 2 Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................ p. 3 Education for Sustainability..........................................................................................p. 3 Place-Based Education..................................................................................................p. 3 Lesson Objectives........................................................... ....................... ...................... p. 4 Lesson 1: When is Garbage Not Really Garbage?...........................................................p. 6 In My Neighborhood: A Day in the Life of Your Garbage and Recyclables.............. p. 10 Field Trip: Visit a Zero Waste School.................................................................... p. 11 Activity 1.A There is No Garbage in Nature...................................................... p. 12 Activity 1.B Resource vs. Waste Sorting Game.................................................. p. 14 Activity 1.C Classroom Waste Audit................................................................. p. 16 Lesson 2: Where Does Our Garbage Go?........................................................................p. 20 In My Neighborhood: Hold a Charity Drive.......................................................... p. 27 Field Trip: Visit a Landfill....................................................................................p. 27 Activity 2.A Build a Landfill............................................................................ p. 31 Activity 2.B Create a Poster............................................................................. p. 34 Activity 2.C Turning Garbage into Energy......................................................... p. 36 Lesson 3: The Many Lives of a Plastic Bottle/Aluminum Can....................................... p. 40 In My Neighborhood: Plastic Survey at Home...................................................... p. 46 Field Trip: Whole Foods Packaging Tour............................................................... p. 46 Activity 3.A Bottle Bonanza............................................................................. p. 47 Activity 3.B Recycle Theater - A Day in the Life of a Plastic Bottle..................... p. 51 Lesson 4: Make Less Garbage: Reducing and Reusing.................................................. p. 53 In My Neighborhood: Discover Reuse Places in the Community.............................p. 57 Field Trip: Rebuilding Exchange or Other Reuse Business...................................... p. 57 Activity 4.A Making Art from Garbage............................................................. p. 58 Activity 4.B Ecological Designers..................................................................... p. 60 Activity 4.C Waste Reduction Campaign........................................................... p. 61 Lesson 5: Make Something Old Into Something New: Recycle It!.................................. p. 62 In My Neighborhood: Set Up A Recycling Station at Home.................................... p. 68 Field Trip: Visit a MRF or Transfer Station............................................................ p. 68 Activity 5.A Make Recycled Paper.................................................................... p. 70 Activity 5.B Classroom Recycling Plan............................................................. p. 72 Activity 5.C Research What Your Community Can Recycle................................ p. 73 Lesson 6: Nature’s Recycling: Compost......................................................................... p. 74 In My Neighborhood: Composting in My Neighborhood....................................... p. 79 Field Trip: Visit a Commercial Compost Facility.................................................... p. 80 Activity 6.A Decomposition Race..................................................................... p. 82 Activity 6.B Make a Classroom Worm Bin........................................................ p. 84 Lesson 7: Exploring Waste at School............................................................................ p. 86 In My Neighborhood: Discover Local Green Businesses........................................ p. 88 Field Trip: Visit a Zero Waste School.................................................................... p. 89 Activity 7.A School Waste Audit...................................................................... p. 90 Lesson 8: Become a Zero Waste Ambassador................................................................ p. 104 Worksheets.................................................................................................................. p. 125 Glossary....................................................................................................................... p. 137 Common Core State Standards...................................................................................... p. 144 Next Generation Science Standards.............................................................................. p. 165 Resources..................................................................................................................... p. 166 Contributors................................................................................................................. p. 185 Copyright © 2013 Seven Generations Ahead. All rights reserved. Don’t Throw Me Away!: A Zero Waste Curriculum Introduction 3 Introduction An essential part of teaching children how to become good stewards of the environment is to help them learn about the current waste system, its implications, and how it can improve. In nature there is no garbage. Every byproduct from a natural cycle is used to fuel another. Nothing is wasted; there is zero waste. Zero waste is a goal of many communities and businesses that includes reducing what we consume, maximizing recycling, minimizing waste, and ensuring that products are made to be reused, repaired, recycled, or returned to nature. In the world humans have constructed, the life cycles of things we use work a little differently. We take resources from nature to create billions of ton of things which we use once, then throw away. Each time we use raw material from the earth without replenishing it (such as cutting down a tree without planting a new tree), we are depleting a natural resource. To be environmentally sustainable, we have to change the way we handle our resources. We need to use fewer resources by reducing. And much of what we dispose of as waste is actually a valuable resource that can be captured and used again by reusing, recycling, or composting. Traditional waste disposal methods, landfilling and incineration can cause environmental problems such as air and water pollution. If the amount of trash generated by our society continues to rise, future generations will be faced with greater environmental and health problems as a result. Children today need to be given the knowledge and skills to be able to make good environmental decisions to conserve and recover valuable resources. Zero Waste Ambassadors (ZWA) are students who are putting their zero waste knowledge into action by making a difference in the way their school, home, and community handle waste and recovers resources. These environmental stewards will translate what they’ve learned in Don’t Throw Me Away! into solutions for their school, individual households, local community, and global society. Education for Sustainability Don’t Throw Me Away! addresses the challenges of waste, how it is handled in our communities, and solutions for recovering resources through a lens of sustainability. The curriculum helps students begin to see that their choices as consumers have an impact on the world around them. The choices that consumers and communities make today, with regards to how they dispose of material, will affect the lives of those living seven generations from now. Students learn different options for conserving and recovering resources such as reusing, recycling, and composting. Students learn that the way we handle waste affects the health and sustainability of plants, animals, insects, people, and communities. Don’t Throw Me Away! is a zero waste curriculum of Seven Generations Ahead’s Zero Waste Schools Program and aligns with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Place-Based Education Don’t Throw Me Away! uses the local environment as a focal point for learning. Place-based education creates a meaningful and culturally relevant framework for learning. By connecting core concept areas and units of study to their classrooms, local communities and regional environments, students have a real-world context for learning. Place-based education opportunities are plentiful in the Don’t Throw Me Away! curriculum. Students can facilitate a waste audit in their school, research and visit community recycling and composting facilities, explore how their communities handle waste, and set up zero waste plans and events. Through this approach, students will understand that they can impact the health of local and global communities and environments. Copyright © 2013 Seven Generations Ahead. All rights reserved. Don’t Throw Me Away!: A Zero Waste Curriculum 4 Lesson Objectives Lesson Objectives Lesson 1: When is Garbage not Really Garbage? • Students will compare and contrast natural waste systems with human waste systems. • Students