Im always amazed with the vastness of the planet when I read discussions on watering lawns while Im looking out my office window at falling snow and being kept awake at night by the snowmobiles driving through my back yard Im living north of the 60th parallel in Canada. Im on a 2 year government contract to do an education and awareness program in a small northern community about waste management. A beverage bottle depot and return program was just initiated last month and this is the first exposure to the concept of recycling this community has had (though there are a lot of people living here that have come from the south and have recycled before so are interested in getting a program started). I dont have funding to start a recycling program but I am researching recycling options and then can make a proposal to the town so they can implement recycling, but there are problems unique to the north to overcome. Does anyone know of curriculum available for schools on the basics of reduce and reuse? Workshops that have already been put together that would be aimed for young adults?
Kate Thomson
Coordinator, Recycling and Waste Management Program
Uncle Gabe's Friendship Center
Fort Smith, NWT Canada
[email protected]
Initiating Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
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Our Portland Office of Sustainability offered this link as a resource: http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?ArticleID=541 I also saw some posters and projects that tracked the life cycle of popular items like soccer balls, dvd's and cd players and ipods. Projects that track popular items among school kids might be an very interesting exercise for them. Boy, the costs of transportation would really add up getting consumer goods up to the great white north! I don't recall where I found these posters but challenging the kids to create their own posters lifecycle costing their most wanted possesions or consumer goods could be cool, from the mining of resources all the way through to the landfill or a way to reuse or recycle would be very interesting. They would have to research if there were a market for recycling say a soccer ball, or a cell phone or ipod or cd or a pair of Nike basketball shoes. Good luck.
The City of Kelowna and the Regional District have an Eco-Heroes Program where we educate students regarding watershed health, airshed health, water conservation, waste reduction, energy management, forestry and regional parks. We have a trivia contest called Environmental Mind Grind where students compete regarding the above environmental issues. We have study packages for all the topics above . Good luck! We have a Regional Waste Reduction Office in Kelowna that is a great resource as well. www.cord.bc.ca
Michelle Kam
Watershed Coordinator City of Kelowna
phone (250) 469-8982
fax (250) 862-3338
[email protected]
You may be interested in a website that several colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Environmental Resources Center have been created. It comes out of years of research to study and develop best management practices for water education and improve access to resources. While this site focuses only on water related topics, it has a wealth of educational resources that could be applied to other topics and a variety of circumstances. Similarly to the CSBM website, it is a collection that continues to grow as more people add their resources.http://wateroutreach.uwex.edu
Janice Kepka
UW-Madison Environmental Resources Center
Farm and Home Environmental Management Programs
Room 303 Hiram Smith Hall
1545 Observatory Drive Madison, WI
53706 608/263-4695