Us vs. Waste Recap

Ashley Paramore

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June 6, 2013

Loyola-Academy-SAVE-Team_Buckets_reduced.png

Creative recycling buckets by Loyola Academy's SAVE Team.

J.C. Locke’s Sandy Drive

The close of the spring semester brought with it the conclusion of ACE’s hugely successful Us vs. Waste campaign. This national ACE campaign, kicked off in fall of 2012, helped students understand their schools’ waste streams, get involved, do projects, and ultimately fight climate change in their own communities.

The campaign encouraged schools to undertake five different types of waste-related projects, from e-waste drives to styrofoam bans to developing composting systems. To excite schools to participate, a retro video-game feel permeated every aspect the campaign: points and rewards for doing projects, an interactive leaderboard and this awesome video. Here is a snapshot of some of the campaign’s results:

decision makers• 64 student action teams submitted a total of 128 waste-related projects during the campaign.

• Participating regions included Atlanta, Chicago, Colorado, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C..

• 76% of teams indicated that this was their first time doing this type of project.

• 87% of the participating teams were previously engaged with ACE during its energy focused campaign in the prior school-year titled “Unplugged.”

• The three most popular types of projects completed:
• “Speak Up” – education/awareness projects – 37% of total projects submitted
• “Trash Bash” – recycling related projects – 27% of total projects submitted
• “Keep It Going” – food waste related projects – 15% of total projects submitted

Glen A. Wilson School taking out their recycling bins.

There have been so many amazing projects this last year run entirely by teens across the country, who had to engage with a wide vavariety of decision-makers in the process of completing their projects.

Glenn A. Wilson School’s Action Team created a recycling system with teachers and students. Teachers were given cardboard boxes with recycling designs to place in their classrooms. Every Friday, their team got together to collect the recyclables. Bags were then taken to a recycling facility, and the money received went back to the Action Team to benefit the community by planting flowers at the school, to senior rehab centers, and other community projects.

Random Lake Science Club at their Speak Up Wellness Fair event.

Random Lake Science Club in Wisconsin held an all-school fair about health, wellness and going green. The fair brought together all of the schools campus clubs together for the event, under the leadership of the Science Club, for the benefit of not only K-11 students but for community members as well.  This was a huge project involving coordination of over 80 student displays, as well as going out to the community and raising over $1,000 in sponsorships. It even had an electric car to take students on tours of town to see other green sites. This Action They had a huge sense of reward for having brought together students of all ages, teachers, administrators and community members for a common cause.

Grades of Green teens at Loyola High School ran a Lunch Against Landfill campaign as an effort to eliminate food waste. These students students planned, implemented, and executed a lunch sorting system by collecting compostables, paper trays, milk and juice cartons, liquid waste, glass, plastic, and aluminum. Compostable waste as taken to the garden. Teens loved seeing the huge decrease in trash.

There are too many amazing projects to cover in this small post, run by many amazing teens. Congratulations on all your successes this past year to all students, teachers, community members, educators and staff involved.

Ashley Paramore

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