Page 17 from: April 2016
17April 2016
ISRI/JASON:
Schooling the
next generation of recycling leaders
Over recent years, one name above all oth-ers has become synonymous with teaching
children about recycling: JASON.
The US Institute of Scrap Recycling Indus-
tries (ISRI) has worked closely with non-profit
organisation JASON Learning to develop a recy-
cling curriculum for teachers of science, tech-
nology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Such has been the initiative’s profile and influ-
ence that it ‘has received international interest,
including from Canada, the Middle East and
India’, confirms ISRI’s vice president of com-
munications and marketing Bob
Ensinger.
JASON’s digital curriculum plat-
form – incorporating ISRI Recy-
cling Activities as a featured unit
– is accessible by over 3 million
students and teachers worldwide.
Activities and literature cover
aluminium, ferrous metal, fibres,
fluids, glass, e-scrap, precious
metals and rubber (www.isri.org/jason). The
curriculum follows core learning standards and
was written in three different age bands for kin-
dergarten through to 12th grade. ‘It depends on
the teacher as to how the recycling curriculum
and activities are integrated into their lesson
plans, and it has varied as both stand-alone les-
sons as well as integration into broader topics,’
notes Ensinger.
‘Whole new world of recycling’
Print and interactive ‘ScrapMaps’ detail the
lifecycle of various recycled
commodities while an interac-
tive recycling game is currently
under development.
Other initiatives include an
annual contest which calls on
young people to build aware-
ness around the variety of items
that can be recycled. Following
on from car recycling in 2014/15
and cell phone recycling in 2013/14, the focus of
the latest of these competitions has been on any
item too big for the blue household collection
bin. Students have been asked to research how
a particular item is recycled and then create an
original video or poster on the subject. The top
entries will be used to help educate not only
other children but also the wider public on what
can be recycled.
‘Often people’s knowledge of recycling and the
associated benefits are limited to their experi-
ence with the blue bins found at home,’ points
out ISRI president Robin Wiener. ‘This contest
opens up a whole new world of recycling for
children to explore.’
Community engagement kit
A central plank of the JASON education initia-
tive is ‘the interaction of the schools and stu-
dents with the recycling industry at the local
level’, according to Ensinger. ‘ISRI is encour-
aging its members to use the (ISRI/JASON)
Teachers and students get ‘hands-on’ with recycling industry
To help integrate the recycling curriculum into les-
son plans at Kalamazoo County Public Schools,
metals and plastics recycler Schupan & Sons, Inc.
has been providing teacher/student tours of its
operations and has also been centrally involved
with teacher training.
‘We sponsored along with the Michigan ISRI Chap-
ter a day-long training event for 15 area teachers
from all grade levels from 10 different schools,’
explains the company’s Jay Sherwood. ‘This was
very much a hands-on training for the teachers,
with the JASON project instructors having them
participate in various science projects while training
them on how to use the JASON website to access
lesson plans and other resource information that
they could use in their classroom instruction.’ The
company also provided the teachers with a binder
containing lesson plans on 18 different subjects.
Sherwood says the pilot has reinforced the com-
pany’s position as ‘a strong community advocate’,
with education ‘as one of our biggest support
areas’.
The recycling curriculum is targeting nearly 65
000 students in Staten Island where the borough
president’s office was looking for ideas to boost
recycling rates. Industry sponsor Pratt Industries
has hosted teacher and student tours of its 100%
recycled paper mill in New York City. ‘Given that
we receive the paper recycled from Staten Island
residents, we were anxious to contribute and par-
ticipate,’ says the company’s Myles Cohen. ‘We
put JASON, the borough president’s office and
JASON Learning together. We then sponsored a
teacher training one-day session to prepare
the teachers to integrate the curriculum into
their classrooms.’
Pratt Industries has benefited through ‘better
relationships with key stakeholders, improv-
ing education about recycling with students
to improve recycling rates’. The collaboration
‘assists our effort with being a good corpo-
rate citizen in New York City’, Cohen adds.
ISRI president Robin Wiener comments:
‘There is nothing better than seeing an actual
recycling operation to learn and truly understand
what recycling is all about. By offering to work with
schools in the communities in which they oper-
ate, recyclers help contribute to the strength of
their communities and provide a bridge to helping
those in their communities understand what they
do and the value they bring to the local economy
and environment.’
And she adds: ‘They may even spark an interest in
one of the students who may one day want to make
a career for themselves in recycling.’
ISRI’S Bob Ensinger.
Teacher training at Schupan & Sons Inc.
Recycling International is keen to promote good
practice in recycling education and would be happy
to hear about other projects around the world. If you
know of a particularly innovative education initiative,
contact [email protected] or
[email protected]
