“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” — Confucius, 450 BC
In recent years, experiential learning has emerged as a methodology to pass on knowledge and encourage skill adoption. It’s a hands-on approach to education that empowers individuals to learn by doing and has exhibited promising results. If experiential learning is an effective way of instilling knowledge, can it help save recycling?
This article explores the experiential learning process and its potential to enhance recycling behaviors, as well as some practical ways to incorporate experiential learning into recycling education and initiatives.
What is Experiential Learning?
Experiential learning is learning something by doing, reflecting, and applying the knowledge and skills in real life. The experiential learning process allows learners to explore, collaborate, and reflect on what they do to fully accumulate new skills and knowledge. Some common examples of experiential learning are internships, clinical education, student teaching, fieldwork, simulation, and community-based research.
The Psychology of Recycling Behaviors
Studies show when it comes to recycling, people tend to get swayed easily, and small details often result in big behavioral changes. Something as small as the shape of a soda can has an effect on whether we recycle it.
A study conducted by a team of psychologists revealed that people were significantly more likely to recycle when their name was spelled correctly on their cups. 48% of those who had their names spelled right recycled their cup as opposed to 26% who had no name on the cup and 24% of those who had their names misspelled. An author of the study, Jennifer Argo, said:
“We are averse to trashing something that is tied to our identity, as it would be conceptually similar to trashing a part of the self, which makes people more likely to recycle.”
In another study, Argo and her co-author Remi Trudel discovered that an object is more likely to get recycled if it’s in its original shape. For example, a crushed can is considered damaged and is more likely to end up in a trash bin. Additionally, a ripped sheet of paper or small bits of paper is more likely to end up in the trash than a large sheet, even if the quantity is more. Argo explains this:
“When items become damaged, they differ from the ‘prototype’ or ideal version of that product, and as a result, they are perceived as being less useful. As consumers, we tend to equate things that are useless with garbage.”
In a nutshell, human psychology and recycling behaviors are complicated but predictable. Once we know how perception impacts behavior, we can adjust education accordingly.
Incorporating Experiential Learning into
Recycling Initiatives
A report by the World Economic Forum showed that globally 25% of people do not recycle because they don’t know how to participate in recycling programs. This lack of knowledge is one of the most common barriers to recycling. Experiential learning programs can help people start recycling, and by doing, they will gain knowledge and confidence to continue the behavior. Here are a few simple ways individuals and facilities can incorporate experiential learning into their recycling initiatives.
For Individuals
Create interactive displays that explain the importance of recycling and show how to properly sort recyclables.
Host hands-on workshops where participants get an opportunity to make DIY projects out of recycled materials or compost their own food waste. Local community centers are great places to conduct these activities.
Organize recycling challenges that encourage participants to recycle more (or better). For example, a challenge to reduce waste output by a certain percentage.
Support community projects that encourage sustainable waste practices, like community gardens, city composting programs, donation services, and charity organizations.
For Facilities
Organize activities to sort different types of materials via hands-on training programs or interactive workshops. Implementing a smart recycling bin like TrashBot can help eliminate recycling contamination and educate users about sorting.
Conduct regular waste audits to identify areas where waste can be reduced, like cutting down on or reusing packaging. TrashBot can provide facilities with on-demand waste audits and analytics on their waste stream.
Prioritize recycling education byprovidingemployees and visitors with ways to learn about recycling and waste reduction. Hosting recycling competitionsbetween different departments (or teams) can also encourage better recycling behaviors.
Experiential Learning Success Stories
Experiential learning is not an entirely new concept. It’s currently being practiced in several companies, including the Port of Portland, Oregon, to improve recycling behaviors among its employees. The port’s sustainability program, PDX Green, has implemented initiatives to promote sustainable practices. A few examples include:
Recycling tours to recycling facilities for interested employees where they see how recyclables are sorted and processed firsthand.
An annual recycling Olympics where employees compete in games and challenges related to recycling and waste reduction.
Green teams formed to promote sustainable recycling behaviors.
Composting programs to reduce food waste at the port’s restaurants and cafes.
To expedite recycling in the US, states like South Carolina are moving towards using experiential learning in recycling. The Market Development team at the S.C. Department of Commerce is partnering with the S.C. Office of Career Services to provide recycling industry-focused experiential learning to students in order to support the recycling industry. It was designed to help students gain hands-on experience in a professional workplace setting and encourage them to think outside the box. Initiatives like this are an excellent way to support the growing recycling industry and help people start a career in the sector.
Leveraging Experiential Learning to Improve
Recycling
Recycling is more than a choice. It’s a necessity and something that should become a part of our daily routine. While it seems simple, recycling can be difficult to achieve consistently. The rules and regulations vary widely, only certain materials can be recycled in specific forms, and recycling contamination still remains an issue.
Experiential learning could be the key to recycling education for any individual. Proponents of experiential learning say that individuals are more motivated to learn when they have a personal stake in the subject. Learning by doing and reflecting on the doing is the best way to see and experience how your actions make an impact.
On the other hand, sorting recyclables is about more than just recycling; it’s about practicing ways to reduce waste. Sorting our trash makes us wonder what we can reuse, repurpose, or put to better use. Alongside recycling education, experiential learning helps us appreciate that our actions make a difference.
A city is often known for its buildings, but construction and maintenance of those buildings consume resources at a frightening rate. To address climate change and meet ESG goals, LEED offers a healthy, efficient, green framework for buildings and communities. LEED projects have diverted an aggregated 80 million tons of waste from landfills, and the volume is expected to increase to 540 million tons by 2030.
In this article, we will discuss how LEED works, LEED for various projects, LEED-certified cities and communities, and the role of waste management.
How LEED Works
To get LEED-certified, a project needs to earn points and go through a verification and review process by GBCI (Green Business Certification Inc.). Projects earn points by following the prerequisites and credits that address carbon, water, energy, waste, health, transportation, material, and indoor environmental quality. The awarded points correspond to the following levels of LEED certification:
Level Platinum: 80+ points
Level Gold: 60-79 points
Level Silver: 50-59 points
Level Certified: 40-49 points
LEED for Different Projects
LEED is not specific to buildings of a certain type. It’s for buildings of all sizes and types and in any building phase, including new construction, interior fit-out, operations and maintenance, and core and shell. To get started with LEED certification, you can select the rating system that best fits your project.
LEED for building design and construction (BD+C) is for new buildings and major renovations. Alongside new construction and core and shell, it includes applications for schools, retail, data centers, hospitals, etc.
LEED for interior design and construction (ID+C) is for complete interior fit-out projects, including commercial interiors, retail, and hospitality.
LEED for building operations and maintenance (O+M) is for existing buildings undergoing improvement work with little to no construction.
LEED for neighborhood development (ND) is for new land development or redevelopment projects. These projects can be at any development stage, from conceptual planning to under construction.
LEED for home is for all residential buildings. However, buildings and homes taller than four stories can also use LEED BD+C.
LEED for cities is for entire and sub-sections of cities. It can measure and manage the city’s water consumption, energy consumption, transportation, waste, and human experience.
LEED-certified Cities and Communities
Since the 20 years that LEED was created, it has been established as a universally agreed-upon holistic system to reduce environmental impacts. Many cities and communities inside and outside of the United States are LEED-certified. From public spaces to airports and much more, LEED is encouraging growth with an emphasis on sustainability. We will discuss some LEED-certified cities and communities and what they’re doing right.
Las Vegas, USA
The famed city of Las Vegas needs no introduction, but did you know it’s a LEED-certified level Gold city with a 4-star rating? Las Vegas became LEED-certified in August 2020 when it implemented strategies to improve the sustainability and standard of living of its residents.
Balboa Park, San Diego
Balboa Park is a historic park in San Diego that got awarded LEED for community certification in 2021. Currently, it’s the only national historic landmark recognized for sustainability achievement through the United States Green Building Council.
Alongside Balboa Park, other places in San Diego, like the San Diego International Airport, have also adopted a zero-waste plan. The Airport Authority successfully diverted nearly 60,000 tons of materials (that would otherwise go to waste) when incorporating construction and demolition waste. They also implemented waste prevention strategies like material reuse and waste diversion strategies like recycling and composting to divert waste from landfills.
Beijing Daxing International Airport, China
Among international buildings, Beijing Daxing Airport is the first project in China that gained the LEED Platinum certification. It is thought to be a driving force for China’s economic growth, emphasizing green and sustainable development.
The Waste Hierarchy and LEED
While people fret more about carbon dioxide emissions coming from aviation, buildings account for nearly 40% of the overall carbon dioxide emissions. Almost a third of the world’s overall waste is construction and demolition waste. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers several strategies to reduce waste ranging from source reduction to waste to energy conversion.
Source Reduction
At the top of the waste hierarchy is source reduction. It’s important because it encourages the use of innovative construction strategies (like prefabrication) to minimize material cutoffs and inefficiencies.
Building and Material Reuse
The second most effective strategy to reduce waste is the reuse of building materials. The use of existing materials reduces the environmental impact of the manufacturing process. Replacing existing materials with new ones requires production and transportation, and it takes many years to offset the associated greenhouse gases via increased building efficiency. In LEED, the reuse of materials is highly encouraged and rewarded. In LEED v4, more flexibility and rewards are offered to all material reuse by projects both in situ and off-site.
Recycling
The most common way to divert waste from landfills is through recycling. Recycling largely depends upon waste sorting, and with recycling technology such as smart bins, it’s easier to sort and process materials right at the time of disposal. Smart bins like TrashBot reduce waste contamination and keep materials in the production stream for longer.
Waste to Energy
Lastly, since a secondary market does not exist for every material, the next best way to divert waste is by converting it to energy. Many countries, including Sweden and Saudi Arabia, are implementing waste-to-energy solutions to reduce the burden on landfills. It can be a viable solution if strict air quality measures are enforced.
How Smart Waste Management Can Help with LEED
Climate change is the biggest threat to our current and future generations. In one of his tweets, former U.S. President Barrack Obama wrote:
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.” —President Obama.
Technology has revolutionized many systems, and smart waste management offers an opportunity to create greener communities. Smart waste management is faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective and helps businesses reduce their impact on the environment, which is LEED’s highest priority. Creating less waste means reducing exposure to pollution and preserving land and habitat.
CleanRobotics and Shine Music are excited to announce their partnership to make recycling more inclusive and accessible at the Shine Music Festival this August 27th, 2022, at Denver’s Civic Center Park.
Shine Music Festival, combines the staples of a typical music festival, comprehensive accessibility plans, and cutting-edge adaptive technology, to create barrier-free spaces that allow people of all abilities the opportunity to share in the groove together. To ensure everyone can attend, the event is free admission.
“We struggled to find a recycling solution that was easy to use, effective, and accessible for all. Until we discovered CleanRobotics’ TrashBot – a solution that allows everyone to participate in taking care of our planet, regardless of ability,” states Shawn Satterfield, Shine Music’s Founder and President. “While brainstorming on how to expand the universal design plans from last year’s event, we realized how non-accessible traditional recycling solutions are”.
TrashBot is a smart recycling bin that diverts recyclables from landfill, organic, and contaminated items while eliminating human error at the point of disposal, which makes it the ideal solution for large events where people dispose of waste without a second thought. Additionally, TrashBot is ADA compliant and features a large display and sound system to make recycling accessible and easier for everyone.
“We immediately fell in love with the mission behind Shine Music Festival and knew we had to get involved,” shared Charles Yhap, CleanRobotics CEO. “We believe smart waste management should be easy and available to everyone, so our partnership with Shine makes perfect sense because of their outstanding work on inclusion and accessibility,” added Charles, who will be personally attending the event with his family from Longmont, CO.
If you are in the Denver area and would like to assist or volunteer at Shine Festival next August 27th, you can find more information at www.shinemusicfestival.com; their extensive accessibility plan will make everyone feel welcome and included.
The technology startup unveils new visual identity and the next generation of TrashBot Zero
CleanRobotics has undergone a complete brand refresh. Driven by the launch of the next generation of their flagship product, TrashBot Zero, they are entering a new chapter focused on clean data to empower a zero-waste future.
“We’re so excited about the latest TrashBot Zero,” said Charles Yhap, CleanRobotics’ CEO. “As we move to the next phase of the company’s growth, we’re updating our look and feel to align with the values that drive us. People come to us for the innovative technologies we’ve built around zero waste and a circular economy; But stay for the data-driven insights we can provide to advance recycling and composting programs.”
CleanRobotics applies innovative AI and robotic solutions to revolutionize recycling and other persistent environmental problems. The TrashBot smart bin has been launched internationally in airports, hospitals, and several high-traffic facilities.
About the rebrand
The new branding is rooted in the company’s values for innovation, zero waste, recycling, and data-driven user education. CleanRobotics looks to position itself as a strong technology parent brand anticipating future innovations in addition to TrashBot.
About TrashBot Zero
TrashBot is a smart bin that ensures the capture of recyclable materials, improves on-site and user-facing waste diversion 300% more accurately than human beings.
The new generation of TrashBot Zero features a sleek exterior design with a robust analytics dashboard, giving facilities unprecedented data into their waste and custodial operations. Made in America with recyclable materials, TrashBot Zero is here to change the way facilities solve for zero-waste.
“With the newest generation of TrashBot Zero and CleanRobotics analytics, we’re going to help organizations achieve waste sustainability goals thought unattainable just years ago.” said co-founder and VP of Engineering Tanner Cook.
To learn more about TrashBot Zero, visit www.cleanrobotics.com.
Every year, on April 22, billions of people celebrate Earth Day all over the world. Only about half a century ago, the world was largely unaware of how environmental issues such as pollution and deforestation are affecting the planet.
The very first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. The original idea was to educate university and college students about environmental issues and to get them on the national policy agenda, which was largely successful. As climate change becomes an existential threat to life on earth, it comes down to humans to resolve the issue. While the problem may not be old, we can’t delay it any further. Only by recycling, reusing, and reducing can we achieve zero waste and battle the environmental crisis.
In this article, we will discuss the history and importance of Earth Day along with how to get started on your zero waste journey.
The History and Importance of Earth Day
In 1969, an oil slick caught fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland. The image of “The River Caught Fire” motivated people to change and protect the environment. In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin organized a National demonstration to raise awareness about environmental issues.
The efforts of Senator Nelson and the others did not go in vain. Within one year of the first Earth day, about 25% of Americans believed that protecting the environment is important and many environmental policies were passed including:
The Clean Air Act
The Water Quality Improvement Act
The Endangered Species Act
The Toxic Substances Control Act
The Surface Mining Control And Reclamation Act
Over the coming years, the day was celebrated as Earth Day making Senator Nelson an icon for the environmental movement.
The Problem: Climate Change and Pollution
Did you know, water covers about 70 percent of the earth, but less than one percent is actually accessible to us? According to WHO, ambient air pollution accounts for nearly 4.2 million deaths per year. There are about 2000 open landfills in the United States, and a whopping 91 percent of the plastic is never recycled.
If we talk numbers, then there are thousands of reports available that can tell you that climate change is real. We hear about animal species going extinct, but climate change poses new problems to the survival of humans as well as animals. Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, heatwaves, and droughts are just a few of the many problems it causes.
Scientists believe that temperatures around the globe will continue to rise largely due to the emission of greenhouse gases produced by human activity. The solution to these problems is zero waste. Let’s take a look at what zero waste is and how it can help the planet.
The Solution: A Zero Waste Future
To do something about climate and changing the very planet we live on, a zero-waste lifestyle is critical. Zero waste is a set of principles that are focused on waste prevention. We are encouraged to redesign our lifestyles where all products are reused.
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
– Barack Obama
Zero waste is good for the environment, economy, and the community we live in. Recycling, reusing and reducing creates about 10x more jobs than average disposal. Making an aluminum can from recycled material takes 20x less energy than raw materials. We waste more than $31 billion worth of food every year, what if it was rather distributed among shelters, food banks, etc.
Here are some of the top benefits of zero waste:
Reduce the impact of climate change
Conserves energy and minimizes pollution
Supports the local circular economy
Promotes social equality and builds community
How Clean Robotics Can Help You Work Towards a Zero Waste Future
“There’s no magic bullet for the challenge of climate change. It will take a creative mix of innovative solutions from across disciplines to drive the impact required. The urgent need for this decentralized, but collective action is historic.” – Charles Yhap, CEO, CleanRobotics
Zero waste is the future, but how will we get there when people are still struggling with what and what not to recycle. Even 20 to 25 percent of the items submitted for recycling are non-recyclable trash. Recycling rules are often confusing and vary from place to place.
More and more companies are moving towards a zero-waste future including the big players like Microsoft and Google. Designed mainly for high-traffic facilities, TrashBot can help your company reach its zero waste goals. On top of trash sorting, TrashBot also offers features like fullness indication, waste data via an online dashboard, real-time audits, and a monitor for data-driven education. Since it relies on AI, it’s about three times more accurate than humans.
So, this Earth Day, start your own zero waste journey and make a difference!
These are troubling times, for businesses, families, individuals, and society. What about for the environment? While some look at the COVID-19 pandemic for all the bad it’s done, we’re choosing to look at it from a more positive planetary perspective.
For just a moment, we here at Sustainable Jungle invite you to metaphorically step outside your quarantines and self isolations to consider how coronavirus affects the circular economy, or one that would seek to eliminate waste at the source.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The coronavirus pandemic has massively disrupted the recycling industry. In the U.S. especially, municipal recycling services like curbside pickup are on the chopping block. While some, like Salt Lake City, are continuing curbside pickup as normal, many have been suspended or terminated. Recycling centers themselves have closed down or banned drop-offs over fear of transmission from item to sorters.
While options to recycle plastics decrease, usage increases.
For sanitation, the medical industry is consuming even more than usual, including polypropylene N-95 face masks, polyethylene Tyvek suits, and good old PET medical face shields.
Individuals, too, are producing more household waste. The sharing economy (and services like renting clothing and thrifting) has taken a dive due to the virus’ highly contagious nature and ability to survive on surfaces for multiple days. Most simply aren’t taking chances. Far easier and safer to just throw something away.
We’re also ordering more online, buying less food in bulk, stockpiling groceries (especially non-perishables that often include more packaging), and ordering more take-out food (seeing as that’s the only way to “eat out”). Even if one wanted to replace plastic and styrofoam takeout containers with reusable ones, they wouldn’t be allowed.
Even zero waste paragon Lauren Singer humbly admitted to “sacrif[ing her] values and [buying] items in plastic [not] recyclable in NYC recycling or maybe even anywhere” for the sake of personal safety.
Just because grocery stores are banning reusable bags and plastic lobbyists are using “public health” as a convenient excuse to overturn the plastic bag ban, that doesn’t mean COVID-19 has us “bagging sustainability” altogether.
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Despite increased plastic use in the home, overall plastic use has undoubtedly fallen with the halt of certain industries. Think about all those plastic cups not being used by airlines alone.
Physical waste, however, is only a small part of the environmental footprint. Truly sustainable living takes into account the unseen impacts of human operations, where we’re also seeing decreases. Business closures may be an economic bane but the office energy and employee transportation emissions saved are an environmental boon.
Mobility in general has slowed dramatically. Over 25% of Americans have been mandated to “shelter in place”. Australia and Europe face even stricter measures against non-essential travel, issuing hefty fines for anyone caught outside without an acceptable reason. These travel bans, shelter-in-place orders, and boardrooms gone chatrooms have left skies and interstates hauntingly empty. In turn, the price of oil plummets and slows petroleum production.
Satellite imagery reveals dramatic decreases in nitrogen dioxide pollution over China and Italy and city dwellers have witnessed the smog veil lifting. Environmental resource economist Marshall Burke stated, “The two months of pollution reduction has probably saved the lives of 4,000 children under 5 and 73,000 adults over 70 in China. That’s significantly more than the current global death toll from the virus itself.” While the death toll now exceeds those numbers, the vast number of lives saved by air quality improvements shouldn’t be discounted.
If news that carbon emissions have fallen by over half isn’t enough to make you feel a little hopeful, we’re not sure what will.
However, our brief planetary respite isn’t cause to rest on our quarantined laurels. What better time to look at sustainability habits in your own home than when you’re stuck there?
While a truly circular economy eventually needs to replace the whole system, it begins at home.
HOW TO RECYCLE BETTER WHILE SHELTERING IN PLACE
This is a time to do what you can for the planet in the confines of prioritizing your own health. Remember: you don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be better. So what are some ways we can reduce our impact while staying home?
First, reduce the plastic you can. Continue to use your reusables; most grocery stores allow reusable bags so long as YOU do the bagging.
Ordering online has now become ubiquitous and with it comes more styrofoam packaging waste, making proper recycling even more critical. If you can, at least try and support your local economy (and reduce shipping emissions) by ordering from a nearby store.
For plastic you do use or that comes with online shopping, just ensure you’re disposing of it properly. That might mean storing it if you have space until municipal services continue. Recycling comes with great intentions that rarely live up to expectations and contamination causes the majority of “recycled items” to end up in landfills anyway.
While innovations like the plastic-sorting TrashBot can vastly ease our problems here, humans still need to help. Like washing away food waste and preventing it from contaminating the batch. Get in the habit of washing your takeout containers and food packagings, like tin cans, glass jars, and plastic containers (as well as learn what number plastics are recyclable in your area).
FINAL THOUGHTS
Will these changes last post-pandemic? Will emissions spike back up once people are allowed to travel and the economy recovers?
Probably. But the extent will depend on us re-examining our definition of “need” and continuing the conserative, non-consumer habits we’ve developed. The pandemic shows we CAN get by with less, even something as “essential” as toilet paper (seriously, zero waste toilet paper isn’t an oxymoron!). It also depends on us voting with our dollar to demand change at the institutional level.
Big picture, COVID-19 represents an opportunity to make climate-positive choices and move toward a more circular economy. For companies, this means implementing teleworking wherever possible and making energy-saving investments. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, “Periods of high unemployment and low interest rates are the right time for new low-carbon investments and infrastructure, including the kind required to support the transition to clean energy.”
We’ve witnessed monumental-scale impact in a miniscule period of time. This pandemic is nothing if not proof that climate-positive change can happen and it can happen quickly. Despite all the year’s uncertainty, that’s pretty clearly inspiring.
For more stores on sustainability and recycling, please visit our friends over at Sustainable Jungle.
