That's Trash

Something I have always done with my chemistry students in Minnesota features going back to the basics. Just get outside and pick up trash.

When my Moroccan host teacher, Hassan, had the same idea for our students in Morocco, I was excited to take on this community service project on the on the other side of the globe. When I first started this project back in Minnesota, I brought kids outside to pick up trash just to give back and do some community service. Once this activity started coinciding with my organic chemistry unit, I had students dig a little deeper into the trash...the activity evolved into students researching degradation rates of all of the trash they find, research and learn about the types of polymers present in the trash. I proposed this idea to Hassan and the Moroccan students and they were on game to do the same thing!

Once you start cleaning trash, you quickly realize there is way more than meets the eye. When I first arrived at Sidi ou Sidi high school and did a quick scan of the courtyard, I was skeptical of how much trash we would actually gather. The courtyard was beautiful, contained many plants and student-made sculptures. I should have known better from my experience of cleaning trash at Edina High School - once you start it's like opening a can of worms. Your eyes start seeing Every. Single. Piece. And there's a lot of tiny pieces no matter where you are in the globe.

The trash clean up team was a small NGO youth group of students who focused on community service. All students attended Sidi ou sidi high school. Students were divided into four teams and were given gloves and a trash can. One team was in the sports area. The other three teams were in the main courtyard with one group concentrating on an area near the wifi connection and parking lot. While students collected trash, we had them collect data: type of item and quantity found.

The students in the parking lot and wifi area quickly realized a pattern: many many cigarette butts (ahem, now the principal knows the "secret area", thanks to us!). Students in the sports area found SO many random items including plastic bags, fruit peels and 9 shoes. Apparently some students decided to just ditch their shoes midway through sport class. But at least those ditched shoes are in the proper place now.

Approximately half way through the trash collection, we definitely found a clear cut winner for type of trash. Yes, cigarette butts were an issue, but there was an even bigger issue: candy bar wrappers. Between classes there is a small snack shop that opens up for students to grab a quick bite to eat. We found candy bar wrappers EVERYWHERE, but mostly concentrated in the area directly surrounding the snack shop. We collected 745 wrappers to be exact.

For a solution to the candy bar wrapper situation, many ideas were thrown around. Maybe students can make an awareness campaign to the school regarding this issue. They could make informative posters and craft some art composed of discarded candy bar wrappers. Maybe students can ask the principal to sell home baked wrapper-less goods instead of candy bars etc... I am excited to see what the student group group campaigns for and what comes as a solution.

Another issue: the trash cans. Yes, there were trash cans lining the courtyard, but the metal mesh containers with large holes and had no liners. Anything that was smaller than the holes went straight through directly to the ground. See photo to the right...

Awareness came of this activity... all students who participated how have a sense of pride in the cleanliness of the environment. I hope that they become ambassadors for the school and promote good habits. Also, we learned how to roll with ideas. This activity started as a simple trash clean up community service activity. Then I suggested we collect data. Then we came up with the idea to compare data between Morocco, Minnesota and New York City - awesome! Students will research degradation rates of all of the various types of trash and collaborate across the ocean on potential solutions and ways to prevent this trash from even hitting the ground.

I am so excited to put this idea into play with my own students! Will we see similar trends? What ideas will students come up with? As long as I can provide the proper framework for these kids, I am confident they will have some amazing thoughts.

Or maybe trash thoughts...