Nowadays it doesn't seem to matter which landfill you go to, a common theme is that they are bursting with unnecessary re-usable or recyclable products, says Kimberley Amour. The Squamish-based environmental educator has been asking students in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) to re-think waste and create positive change in their communities, with the aim of reducing the amount of waste heading to the landfills.
Heading up the Zero Waste program - an action initiative of the SLRD's solid waste management plan - Amour has been responsible for designing and implementing in-classroom sessions with elementary and high schools in the region since September. The solid waste management plan aims to reduce the region's per-capita solid waste by 67 per cent as compared to 1990 disposal rates using various waste minimization strategies, including education.
The inaugural program is designed on experiential and place-based learning models, explained Amour, where experiential refers to learning through experience and place-based is setting it in the local environment.
Sixteen elementary school classes in the SLRD participated in the Zero Waste workshop, learning about the region's waste management systems, and discovering what happens to their waste and recycling "beyond the bin."
Amour said she tells students how the Squamish landfill has recently been expanded to an area the size of two official soccer fields, but in five years, if we don't change our waste habits, there will be a 20-metre-high pile of garbage and it will be full.
"They see pictures of the landfill filling up with waste that doesn't belong there; they hear the stories of how it's almost at capacity and I get them to connect the dots and say the answer is waste diversion, waste reduction," Amour said.
"Every single person in the region throws away almost one tonne of garbage and recycling every single year. Times one tonne by the over 54,000 people that call the region home and you have got yourself a hefty pile," she said.
Students also explored the idea of how much waste is involved in the production of "stuff" and the Zero Waste workshop concluded with a hands-on lunch waste audit in which students gathered all their waste into separate piles and analyzed it.
"Separating the lunch waste into objects opens up a conversation around waste alternatives," said Amour, noting that the students discovered solutions such as using re-usable containers for drinks, snacks and yogurt.
That activity was followed up by a Garbage-Free Lunch Day the week after the workshop where the class used the same auditing system to re-audit their lunch waste.
Every classroom she visited reduced its waste, with the average rate of 63 per cent reduction per class, Amour noted. The classes were then entered to win one of 10 classroom worm composters.
"It was so well received by the kids - they really loved it," she said.
But it was not only the students who embraced the Zero Waste program wholeheartedly.
Ms. Hain, the Grade 4/5 teacher at Stawamus Elementary, said the program has been a positive experience for everyone at the school.
"We have also organized a Zero Waste Challenge for the school," she said. "And we have changed the school lunch program a bit - no more plastic sandwich bags, replaced with reusable containers, no more paper bags, and laminated lunch slips."
The high school edition of the Zero Waste program was a competition between regional high schools to understand their solid waste composition.Students conducted a waste audit and developed a solid waste reduction plan, and one school will win $1,000 to implement its waste reduction plan.
Amour said that the essence of the program can be summed up in a few words.
"We talk about reduce, reuse, and recycle; but really it is just re-thinking waste."
The Zero Waste program is set to continue through the 2012-'13 school year. For more information, visit www.slrdzerowaste.blogspot.com.
