Solid Waste School Program

Solid Waste School Program

The Solid Waste Youth Program offers a variety of interactive lessons, focused on Solid Waste Management topics such as recycling, composting, and landfills. Partial funding to support this program is provided by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation with additional funding from the Broome County Division of Solid Waste Management to provide free education to Broome County residents. Groups must be a part of Broome County to participate.

Recycling Lessons

Recycled Paper Making (K-2^nd)

• First, learn how paper is used and created with an interactive presentation complete with real samples and easy to understand visuals. Youth will learn how this process affects our environment and experience first-hand how paper is recycled. All this complete with the finished product to take home!
• Request Recycled Paper Making Lesson

When Trash Comes Back (3^rd-6^th)

• This interactive presentation can be delivered on it’s own or in combination with the “Recycling Lab” for the greater impact. Discover where our trash comes from, how it connects to our natural resources and the environmental impact. Students will be fully engaged with vivid visuals, short videos, and easy to understand analogies. Get the inside scoop on what’s recyclable in Broome County, how recycling is handled, and the products (some extremely unique) created as a result.
• Request When Trash Comes Back Lesson

Recycling Lab (3^rd-6^th)

• This lesson can easily be offered on it’s own, but is best received when combined with “When Trash Comes Back.” Youth take on the role of Environmental Scientist when they receive a (clean) bag of trash to analyze with this hands-on lab. Youth will discover how trash is connected to natural resources and what can be recycled in Broome County through experiential learning, the use of reference charts, and a little teamwork. Your students are bound to be amazed with their new discoveries!
• Request Recycling Lab
• Request Recycling Lab to Follow "When Trash Comes Back"

Trashman (3^rd-6^th)

• Our program believes hands-on, experience based learning is the most effective and engaging lesson for youth. However, with the increasing demands in schools, we understand that time can be hard to come by. This lively performance helps students learn about the garbage problem and how they can help make a difference with vivid examples of wasteful behavior, audience participation and lots of visual props.
• Request TrashMan 

Composting Lessons

Compost Stew with Worm Bin Discovery (Pre-K-1^st)

• Literacy and Science come together! Discover the “ingredients” for compost through an interactive read-aloud of Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary Mckenna Siddals. This rhyming story provides the perfect lead-in to an up-close discovery of “Compost Stew” and the wiggly creatures that help create it.
• Request Compost Stew

Garbage Helps our Garden Grow with Compost Creatures Discovery (K-3^rd)

• Literacy and Science come together! Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story by Linda Glaser is an easy to follow, non-fiction piece with vivid step-by-step photos to share nature’s own form of recycling. Youth are sure to be engaged as they discover the tiny creatures that recycle garbage in a real compost sample, equipped with magnifying glasses for a closer look! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.  
• Request Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow

Nature's Recyclers with Compost Creatures Discovery (4^th-6^th)

• Literacy and Science come together! We all know that paper, plastic, glass, and metal can be recycled but what about food scraps? Learn more about outdoor recycling with an interactive read aloud of Composting: Nature’s Recyclers by Robin Koontz. Get up-close and personal with the stars of the composting story- decomposers (and even a few predators) as you search through a real compost sample, equipped with a magnifying glass! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.
• Request Naure's Recyclers

Compost Creatures (6^th-12^th)

• We all know that paper, plastic, glass, and metal can be recycled, but what about food scraps? Learn more about outdoor composting- how it affects our ecological footprint and the creatures that play a key role in the process. Get an up-close look at the creatures with a digital microscope after collecting them from a real compost sample! Due to the availability of creatures, this program is offered from late April through late October.
• Request Compost Creatures

Not seeing what you're looking for? Contact us to discuss options. 

Last updated January 23, 2018