When I was a child I was taught the 3-Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I fully understood that those Rs were in that order for a reason. Primary objective, reduce the waste you produce. If waste is produced, can it be reused prior to joining the waste bin? Finally, when the other two options are exhausted, recycle at the very least. They weren’t choices, they were priorities.
In regards to our plastic use, the myth that plastic can be and is being recycled was sold to us by the plastics industry. “…the industry spent millions telling people to recycle, because, as one former top industry insider told NPR, selling recycling sold plastic, even if it wasn't true.”
Teaching the 3-Rs at this time (especially if the bulk of your message is to recycle) is not only old-school, it’s limited. The big 3 have been replaced with a message that takes into account the limitations in recycling (plastic in particular) and how our modern economy has evolved to a single-use model. I’ve seen articles about the 5-Rs, the 7-Rs, others have limited the list to 3 but have reassigned the Rs. How about 1? One all-encompassing R?
Teachers, as you get settled into this new school year, knowing full well you have one million things to do, one thousand balls to juggle at once, 15+ beautiful hearts to tend to for the next 180 days or so, I ask you to add one more task to your to-do list.
Rethink.
Your classroom produces waste. The waste you and your class(es) produce is dependent on how you set up your room, the projects and assignments you assign, the expectations you set, what you communicate home. You have a choice to lead by example or to full on make sustainable, low-waste living an active part of your teaching this year.
Yes, on top of everything else!
Actually, as a former full time public school teacher, I know precisely the overwhelm, the anticipation, the trepidation and the exhaustion you have before you, so don’t let me add to any stress. Let me just say: Rethink.
Rethink how you assign a project. Can it be written into the rubric that student’s use repurposed materials?
Rethink your choice of supplies. Can you request rags and concentrated all-purpose soap rather than disposable wipes?
Rethink your own habits. Is your preferred morning beverage in a reusable mug or a paper cup with a plastic lid? What passive message does that send to the dozens of eyes watching?
“The Borrowed Classroom” was a blog I began years ago; B.C. in fact. (that’s Before Covid) When Covid hit and classrooms shifted online, blogging about a nature focused, sustainably managed classroom was pointless. At that time, I stayed home to homeschool my boys (a low waste home school, easier than running a low waste classroom) and I tried (successfully) to keep my environmental education business afloat. I began a new blog, “Wildlife Encounters of a Homebody”; a new outlet, a different tone, a fun project.
As I settle into the 2022-23 school year, it seems like the right time to dust off “The Borrowed Classroom” and see what the next year holds for me: for my teaching, my writing and for your classrooms. There are older posts for you to read; some I will revamp. I have new ideas to write about in the coming months, including an expansion on this concept of the 1 R: let’s Rethink our classroom practices. Let’s break the mold of what was. While children all over the world express environmental issues and climate change in particular as sources of anxiety, let’s get in the game, ease their anxiety, model sustainable practices and acknowledge that their anxiety is not fruitless. Our environment is suffering, and we humans are the root cause. Let’s rethink that. Let’s be the solution.
More to come and may you enjoy this school year, -Rachel
Why isn’t plastic being recycled?
Great question. The answer can be complicated but let me try to simplify it.
Quite frankly, it isn’t cost effective. From shipping the plastic to a facility to be processed, to paying people to sort and clean the plastic, to the ever-changing cost of oil, there are costs at every step. When oil is cheap, plastic is cheaper to generate from virgin sources than to reuse or recycle what’s already circulating through our economy. And recycling requires proper sorting and cleaning on the consumer end and an alarming number of people don’t bother. Add to that the cultural acceptance of our ubiquitous single-use plastic economy.
According to recent studies, 85% of plastic in the US is buried in a landfill, about 10% is incinerated and only the remaining 5% is recycled.
Also, plastic degrades each time its recycled, becoming a lower quality product in the process. Bottles become clothes for example or a reusable grocery bag. In contrast, aluminum and glass can be recycled an infinite number of times without degradation.