Mr. Chirico’s grade 5 class at Hume School has been exploring the story of all our stuff, from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of our waste.
They took a journey through time to discover how the waste we produce is vastly different from our ancestors. There is way more “waste” and it has changed from being biodegradable to mostly not so!
The class met Master Chef Chirico and learned the old family recipe for making fossil fuels- the primary raw material used for our plastic world. Plastic is of particular concern when thinking about our stuff and waste, for it’s everywhere and it never fully breaks down.
With the help of a guest garbolosigt, Madame Garbaagio, and Oliver (garbologist-in-training) the class dove into their garbage and examined how we could reduce, reuse, recycle, repair and rethink to shrink our contribution to the landfill. Many items in the class garbage were sent home to be refilled or rinsed and recycled.
Much of the waste generated in the classroom is biodegradable which has inspired the creation of a class compost. Partnering with a school neighbor, the students are saving food waste and paper towels to be turned into a gardener’s delight- COMPOST!
Way to go Grade 5 class! We’ve only just begun Beyond Recycling!
