Part 1: Waste and the Linear Economy
Summary
Almost everything we do creates waste. This is true of many products that we buy, from their packaging at the time of purchase to their disposal at the end of their useful life. In the U.S., we dispose nearly 5 lbs. (2.24 kg) of solid waste per person each day, more than half of it ending up in landfills (Kaza et al, 2018). In this exercise, students will examine their solid waste over a 24-hr period by conducting a waste audit. They will reflect on the waste audit individually and as a group in class discussions.
Learning Goals
After completing the module, students will be able to:
- Identify ways in which currently linear aspects of our economic system shape your own behaviors and norms;
- Explain a sustainable "circular economy" from systems perspective;
- Identify how human and natural systems may affect each other in a circular economy; and
- Evaluate the implications on the environment and on social, health, and economic equity of a linear and a circular economy.
Context for Use
This activity is Part 1 of a three-part module designed to cover approximately 1-2 weeks of class time (~ 3 50-minute class periods with pre-work for each module), depending on how the module is implemented with respect to in-class and outside-of-class work. While the module was designed with face-to-face interactions in mind, it can be adapted for remote learning, with various asynchronous and synchronous options. The module can be used in any undergraduate course and can be tailored to the level of the students.
Description and Teaching Materials
Student Pre-work
Students should read and complete the tasks provided in the first five pages of the exercise, including the one‐day Personal Waste Audit homework and reflection assignment. Students reflect on their personal waster audit using the following questions:
- Based on the number of items, what category of waste dominates your waste stream? Were the majority of items in this category landfilled, recycled, or composted?
- What percentage of items were landfilled? Were these items restricted to one or two or more categories of waste? Summarize your data.
- For items that were landfilled, could they have been recycled? Or composted? Describe.
- Based on the results of your audit, describe one change you are willing to make to reduce your waste in general or the waste you landfill?
Personal Waste Audit - Spreadsheet Exercise (Excel 2007 (.xlsx) 53kB Sep13 22)
Personal Waste Audit - Reflection Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 240kB Sep13 22)
A class spreadsheet is provided in the Personal Waste Audit spreadsheet above that can be posted at a shared site or as a google sheet. It summarizes class data as a pie chart for each category of waste; it can also be converted for individual use.
Class participation in discussion
After collecting data from students in either an individual or shared spreadsheet and receiving their reflection responses, have a class discussion that reviews the linear economy based on students' waste stream. You can use any of the following prompts or create your own:
- Which category of waste is most frequently landfilled? Recycled? Composted?
- Does it vary within the class depending on living situation (i.e., is the waste stream of a person living in the dorm on a meal plan vary from the person living in an apartment making their own meals)? If so, how and why?
- Describe the linear economy as it relates to one of the waste items or categories you landfilled in your waste audit.
- Examine the categories of the items that are being landfilled or composted. Could the landfilled waste be recycled? Composted? What are the barriers to doing so?
- Can a shift from a linear economy to a circular economy be accomplished individually? Why or why not? In what ways, could you personally promote this shift?
Teaching Notes and Tips
Depending on class size, the discussion should allow for different ways to participate. This could involve, a think‐pair‐share activity since students are coming to class with some responses in hand. The pairs or groups of pairs may report out on their discussions, but also turn in notes from the discussion if the instructor asks them to appoint a note taker. This could also be evaluated by a one‐minute response to a specific question about what students heard that was particularly interesting or that could be personally adopted to be collected at the end of the activity.
Assessment
An assessment rubric is provided for the waste audit, reflection responses, and class discussion, so instructors can provide feedback to students on their progress toward Learning Outcome #1: Identify ways in which currently linear aspects of our economic system shape your own behaviors and norms. Instructors may insert the rubric into the student exercise if they want it available to students prior to completion of the assignment.
Personal Waste Audit - Rubric (Acrobat (PDF) 253kB Sep13 22)