){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
Teaching a circular economy helps generate a change in the classroom in favor of the environment and strengthens our commitment to sustainability.
In recent decades, the world’s population has increasingly accelerated; the demand for products and resources is tremendous. Consequently, environmental systems have significant pressure to produce essential consumables for the population. However, this is far from the only problem. Poor management of residual materials from production generates pollution that eventually ends up in the sea, a genuine concern for all because it threatens our oceans’ stability and conservation, all its richness and marine life. The question arises: how can we generate positive changes for the environment from the classroom? Below, we share our experience.
Teaching students new concepts such as the circular economy supported by citizen science to promote environmental and science education allows engaging and connecting students with their reality through environmental conservation projects. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy addresses the resource consumption challenges of organizations and economies, seeking to facilitate production and consumption systems that promote efficiency in using materials, water, and energy. In turn, citizen science is an integral way to connect people to environmental systems and conservation challenges.
Students from Tecnologico de Monterrey assessed the circularity of plastic waste in five cities in Mexico. This research allowed us to see the Mexican population’s consumption and waste disposal characteristics and dynamics and how these differed in each of the study’s five zones.
Implementation of methodologies to assess circularity
Collaborating with the University of Georgia, the FEMSA Foundation, and Ocean Conservancy, Tecnologico de Monterrey implemented the University of Georgia’s methodology called Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) for the first time in Mexico and Latin America. The aim was to identify and understand the consumption habits and plastic waste management in five Mexican cities Monterrey, Mexico City, Queretaro, Tuxtla Gutierrez, and San Cristobal de las Casas. The research considered waste management and its implications for the environment and identified intervention points to shift to a circular economy.
In this innovative educational project, the students solved real problems and learned the concepts of circular economy and citizen science. They also learned the particularities of each city’s waste management and how it impacted its environment.
“In Mexico, 102,895 tons of waste are generated daily, of which only 83.93% is collected and 78.54% taken to final disposal sites; only 9.63% is recycled.”
Data collection using technology
Scientists need information about the environment to generate more robust solutions to the problems of pollution in the oceans from plastics or other waste, and they are turning to citizens to collect the necessary data and inform. Through the mobile app Marine Debris Tracker developed by the University of Georgia, people can collect information about the type of garbage in the sites where they are located. This geospatial information is collected and uploaded to an open-access database, which can be downloaded and analyzed by scientists, politicians, engineers, educators – basically anyone – to design and develop solutions.
Tecnologico de Monterrey students were trained to obtain and enter the data using the Marine Debris Tracker application for this project. The tool also allowed identifying and quantifying the waste found during their field trips in the five study areas.
Project results
Plastic predominates among the waste materials found, followed by tobacco and paper waste. Curiously, in Querétaro and Mexico City, the materials with the highest count were cigarettes or their waste. In the other cities, plastic was the waste with the largest number of identified samples. However, a common denominator in all the study cities was the lack of adequate infrastructure for waste management; i.e., they do not have an efficient garbage collection system, and they lack garbage containers both on public roads and in the collection sites.
“The data analysis results surprised me. Before doing this project, I did not understand the magnitude and importance of proper waste management.”
– Aynara Nicole Moreno García (student).
Three proposals were formed from this research work for waste management: 1) promote environmental education and facilitate synergies among educational institutions, non-governmental entities, and other social leaders; 2) improve the current infrastructure for waste collection and management, and 3) promote a recycling culture that allows values the materials that can be recovered and reused.
Reflection
One of the biggest challenges to implementing this project was conducting it during the pandemic period and promoting a safe environment for the health of our students and teachers. It was also a challenge for the students to analyze the large amount of disaggregated information obtained from the application and share the results simply in a participatory workshop.
When we talk about pollution in our country, it is very typical to point to others besides ourselves as a problem, be it industry or public transport, to name a couple. However, through this project, we managed to sow in the students that all people cause the pollution. That cigarette butt they found, that watered paper or plastic in different places, did not come from any company. This work helped the students realize that pollution also comes from the daily activities of us citizens; therefore, we can all be part of the solution. This change of “chip” in thinking and commitment was a fundamental aspect for the students. If we talk about taking care of the environment and committing to sustainability, this kind of work can generate changes that emanate from the classrooms. Therefore, we invite our colleagues in education to develop similar projects because when the students win, so do the educational institutions and our planet.
About the authors
Gabriela Ortiz (gabriela.ortiz@tec.mx) is a Chemical Engineer and has a Masters of Science with a Specialty in Environmental Engineering from Tecnologico de Monterrey. She has participated in designing regulatory instruments for environmental matters jointly with SEMARNAT for air quality, hazardous waste management, and evaluation of environmental liabilities. She has more than 26 years of experience in Environmental Management and continuously participates in environmental projects in her discipline.
Jenna Jambeck, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Georgia. She has researched solid waste issues and participated in projects related to marine debris for more than 20 years (since 2001). Her work on the entry of plastic waste into the ocean has been recognized by the global community and translated into policy debates by the Global Ocean Commission before the U.S. Congress.
Kathryn Youngblood is a research engineer at the Institute for New Materials at the University of Georgia. She is director of citizen science for Marine Debris Tracker. She has researched root solutions for the plastic pollution of oceans for more than five years. In 2019, she traveled along the Ganges River as a member of National Geographic’s Sea to Source expedition to study plastic waste leakage in 10 communities along the river.
Mónica Delgado Fabián is a chemical engineer administrator, obtaining her Masters of Science with a specialty in Environmental Engineering from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey. For 19 years, she participated as a member of the Recycling Committee of Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, where she promoted the establishment of the waste separation and recycling program. She is currently a professor in the Department of Sustainable and Civil Technologies. She has participated in various educational innovation projects.
References
Jambeck, J. R., & Johnsen, K. (2015). Citizen-based litter and marine debris data collection and mapping. Computing in Science & Engineering, 17(4), 20-26.
Nugent, J. (2020). Debris Tracker. Science Scope, 44(1), 84-86.
Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
){kind=icon}
){kind=icon}
This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
)