Weighing in Trashy Resolutions

We’re not asking you to take on another New Year’s Resolution. You don’t need to till over another year to finally bring your seed-thoughts to fruition. We know you’re already eco-a-go-go. And we’re not going to get preachy about ours: SIGG is sexier than Poland Spring; get Irish guilty about not toting plastic bags; re-usable mug-tuggers deserve hugs; say no to take-out containers and hello to, "Can you put it in this?"; push earth-reverent lessons without getting called into the principal’s office; and green-wrench schools into little sun-capturing, worm-eating worlds.

We’re adding another: join WasteWise—EPA’s no-cost, voluntary program for reducing municipal solid waste. WasteWise helps set waste reduction goals and gives students a chance to create annual reports about how many precious resources they’ve saved—a pat on the back with math. There are also opportunities for public recognition, and if that means press, we’re in. (Doesn’t the public want to know summer vacationing teachers are saving precious tax dollars by running volunteer recycling programs?)

It’s about time the Department of Sanitation conduct a separate waste characterization study for schools so a cost benefit analysis can be done (why do we have to look to California data?), but in the meantime, let’s show how much paper and other right-to-new-lifers we can save from the landfill. Then it’s easier to talk about what non-recycling schools are stacking up in felled trees and racking up in tipping fees.

Plus, we’ll get a frameable annual graphic of waste and greenhouse gases our Green Teams averted. There’s even a support hotline for those moments when we feel we’re short our lofty goals: (800) EPA-WISE! Or, we can go local by calling waste reduction extraordinaire, Rachel Chaput, EPA Region 2, at 212-637-4116.

We’re going to kick it off with a little An Inconvenient Truth. Add a very convenient worksheet to pique students’ grade-getting attention during viewing. Then we’ll top it off with a trip to the Museum of Natural History’s Climate Change exhibit (NTS: download the exhibit worksheets, make double-sided copies). EPA also has a handy PowerPoint to make the connection between waste and global warming.  

So now that it’s on the list, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and find out if we’re really garbage-under-the-fingernails in it to weigh it; only 2009-time will tell.