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CleanerContraCosta.org

Climate Change Solutions

Palo Alto Go Carbon Free Challenge

YOUR NAME

TITLE

School NAME

School LOGO

QR Code to Community Group link

Teachers: you do not need to use all the slides in this presentation. Pick and choose what works best for you. Or break it into 2-3 lessons. A few days before the presentation, be sure to set up your class “Community Group” and send the special Invite Link to students:

1) Take 30 seconds to register to the Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge: https://cleanercontracosta.org/register.�

2) Click on the "Community" icon at the bottom (or top) of your screen. Then select Groups and finally "Learn More" in the Become a Leader box. �

3) Select "Create a Group" and then fill in the details. Your students will see these details (team name, group message, etc). Name your group something like, “Jones-Miramonte, Environ Sci-2024-25.”

4) Once the Group is created, there will be a box at the top that reads, "Invite Link." This is the link that you will send to your students so that they join your classroom Group and you can see your collective stats for saving water, energy, gas and money based on the sustainable actions that they take.

5) Email students something like, �“Click the INVITE LINK to create your free account on the Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge. Your “Household Name” means your last name + house, like “Smith House.” Please use your personal email address (as long as you can use it at school) as sometimes the school firewall blocks messages to your school email address. Remember your login. We will be using this website soon in class.”

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Circular Economy: smarter way of making and using products with less resources; reducing single-use items.

Sustainability and Circular Economy

Sustainability: avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.

So let’s talk about ways we can help climate change and avoid these public health risks. Sustainability deals with maintaining our resources and a circular economy is creating products to last a long time or be easily recyclable to be created again.

These 2 ideas tie directly into climate change. More than 2/3rds of Americans are concerned about climate change but don’t know how to help. Climate change is natural over a long period of time but when we use some resources too rapidly the planet can’t keep up. Because we have released too many greenhouse gasses like CO2 into the atmosphere, the plants and oceans can’t absorb it quickly enough. �

I read a comparison with the earth’s temperature rising is like a human’s temperature rising. Evidence suggests that the body maintains a relatively stable temperature in order to keep its many organs and chemical reactions running smoothly, avoiding infections. So if the body temperature goes up 1 degree per year, eventually those organs and chemical reactions will not work. Same with the earth!

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Circular Economy Product examples

Of these products you see here- there is one that is a bad example of circular economy product- meaning it ends up in landfill. Can you guess which one? Ans: Juice Box.

Most juice boxes you see at the store are made out of a layer of paper, a layer of metal and a layer of plastic, all glued together so that they’re impossible to separate and recycle. To make the Circular Economy a reality we need companies to redesign products like these so that they’re easily reusable. Here are some good examples:

Dishwasher Tabs:

Mineral and plant-based tabs wrapped in dissolvable wrap, so no waste, recyclable cardboard box.

Sprite: Switched to clear plastic vs. green b/c clear can be recycled more times. Green colored plastic has to be separated from clear bottles during recycling process and were more often recycled into things like clothes and carpeting which are harder to recycle again. �

Adidas shoes- Video of you click on shoe pic. Shoes can be recycled and made into new pair.

Impossible or Beyond Burger: less greenhouse gasses used when eating plants, 99% less water, 93% less land, 90% fewer GHG, 46% less energy than beef. Packaging needs work.

Any other ideas?

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Sustainable Farming

Video on Industrial vs. Sustainable Farming

WAYS TO HELP:

Rotating Crops
Cover crops
Pest Management
Water management
Carbon sequestration
Organic fertilizers
Promoting biodiversity
Decrease pollution (water, air)

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4 Main Areas of Sustainability

Energy (in your home, car, etc)
Transportation (cars, ships, planes)
Water (mainly in home)
Waste (both food and trash)

Here are the 4 main areas that we can work on as far as sustainability.

For Energy- I’m referring to the energy we use to heat our homes, to power our phones, to provide lights for our cities. Name 1 thing you can do personally to reduce your energy usage? Do you know that LED’s use 75% less energy to LED light bulbs use vs. incandescent? So replacing with LED’s will save you a good chunk of money in the long run b/c they last way longer and they lower your energy bill. ��2. Transportation uses mostly gas still to power our cars, ships and planes. What is one way we can reduce the gas we use in our cars? or one way we can cut down on transportation pollution?

3. Water conservation refers to what we use in our homes and yards. Name a way to reduce water usage.

4. And Waste is the area I think we can ALL work on together so we are going to focus on that today. I think it’s it’s the biggest way you can help with sustainability at your age.

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Let’s Talk Trash!

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Trash Game! HOW LONG TO DECOMPOSE?

In Order	ITEM	How Long To Decompose
1	Cardboard	2 months
2	100% cotton shirt	6 months
3	Chip/Granola Wrapper	10-20 years
4	Clothes with synthetic materials	80+ years
5	Wet Wipes	100 years
6	Aluminum cans	200+ years
7	Plastic Bottle	450 to 1000 years
8	Styrofoam	500 years to never

https://stacker.com/stories/2682/how-long-it-takes-50-common-items-decompose

Gather the various items in this chart before the presentation. Then, select students to take one item each and line up in the order they think it takes for item to decompose- shortest to longest. Once ready, click on slide to reveal the answers.�

Cardboard: 2 months- Aside from recycling, cardboard can be composted. It breaks down fairly quickly when it’s exposed, but tightly packed cardboard can endure for years.�
Pure Cotton t-shirt: 6 months. Can also be used in compost.�
Chip/Candy Wrapper 10-20 years- best to buy in bulk, like goldfish crackers and put into reusable bags or make from scratch, like granola bars.�
Synthetic Fabric: 80 years. Unlike naturally occurring wool and cotton, synthetic fabrics like lycra and polyester can take centuries to break down. Best to look at tags and buy pure fibers.�
Wet Wipe: 100 years. Wet wipes are popular for quickly removing makeup, changing babies’ diapers, and making house cleaning a snap. The problem is they contain polyester-based plastic that’s virtually indestructible; And they are NOT flushable, despite packaging that may state, “flushable.” �
Aluminum Can 200+ years: Unlike many other materials, aluminum can be recycled an unlimited number of times, making it one of the most critical and widely repurposed recyclables. So always recycle, vs. put in trash. �
Plastic Bottle: 450-100 years Pollution from plastic bottles is a global problem, but in the United States alone more than 60 million bottles are thrown away instead of being recycled every single day. They wind up in landfills, incinerators, oceans, parks, streets, and other public spaces. One of the easiest items to recycle, plastic bottles take hundreds of years to decompose.�
Styrofoam breaks into smaller and smaller pieces but it’s debatable if it ever fully decomposes. Most of the small pieces end up in our waterways, hurting marine life.

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RECYCLE

TRASH

COMPOST

Cardboard
Aluminum Can
Plastic Bottle
Foil

Chip/Candy Wrapper
Amazon envelope*
Wet Wipes
Styrofoam container
“Compostable” Fork

30% 30% 40%

Pizza Box/To-Go box (no shine)
Soiled napkin
Apple
Leaves & yard waste

Trash Game! WHICH BIN DO I GO IN?

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Landfills vs. Composting and Recycling

Composting: Creates Soil + Biogas

Landfill: Creates Methane (84 x worse than CO2)

In ~20 years, landfills will be at full capacity.

Recycling: Creates Circular Economy

USA= 4.9lbs of trash per person, per day.

CA Goal= 75% of solid waste diverted.

The reason that sorting waste is important is that our landfills are filling up. How old will you all be in 20 years? That’s when they predict our landfills will be at full capacity. The USA averages 4.9 lbs of trash/person/day, double other countries. We have 4% of the world population but produce 15% of the total waste. Our landfills release 17.4% of total human methane emissions. Methane which is 84 times more potent than CO2 (or 84 times better at absorbing the sun’s heat).

The good news is that we can do 2 easy things to help! 1) Composting is putting our food and yard waste into the green bin. Before composting started, food and yard waste made up almost 50% of our landfills! Food that is buried in a landfill creates a greenhouse gas called Methane which is 84 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide so it’s really bad.

Here’s a great video about the new law in CA called SB 1383:. https://irecyclesmart.com/organics/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImszaw-ic-wIVHx-tBh0T7wuMEAAYASAAEgL4lfD_BwE

The other thing we can do is to recycle. A lot of products now are being made with recycled materials. Have you noticed that a lot of plastic bottles read, “Made from 80% recycled materials” or something like that? And we can recycle the cardboard that all the amazon packages come in. Or glass bottles can be remade into new things over and over. Recycling creates a circular economy. Here’s a great video on Recycling.

Recycling not an issue, plastic an issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwJuhTGInIE&t=1s (10 mins)

OR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVBkjMbF4Z4 NYT recycling and plastic (5 min)

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Plastic Pollution: The Ocean Clean Up

Goal- remove 90% of floating plastic

2 parts:

Rivers- stop new plastic (gives 80%)
Ocean- Clean up current plastic

12,771,454 pounds cleaned up so far!

Plastic is a big part of the trash problem. Plastic is amazing b/c it can be flexible or hard. It doesn’t corrode. We use it in medical devices. But the issue is that we’ve overused it. Only 1,2,3, symbols get recycled, bags are very hard to recycle so most plastic ends up in trash or oceans and it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces call microplastics. The surface of the ocean is FILLED with microplastics. Our oceans collect 8 million new pieces of plastic daily! Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Clean Up happening now? It’s a startup company called “The Ocean CleanUp.” Clever name. Well, they created this very simple floating net to catch the plastic. And there’s 2 parts to the clean up:

Rivers contribute 80% of the plastic in the ocean so we need to stop the plastic from the rivers into the ocean. https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/
The ocean clean up.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZkVHpsY3lQ&t=41s&themeRefresh=1

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Fast Fashion: water polluter + waste

13 million tons of clothes sent to USA landfills per yr & sit for 200 years
10% CO2 emissions = as much France, Germany and UK combined

Video on Fast Fashion

WAYS TO HELP:

Wear clothes often
Buy 2nd hand
Clothing Swap

Send for recycling
Buy quality
Mend tears

One area I didn’t realize was a big contributor to waste is Fast Fashion. It actually is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas When you think about a shirt only costing $2, it really doesn’t make sense- process cotton and other raw materials to make fabric, then someone to work at least an hour or 2 on cutting that fabric, sewing it on a machine, and then the cost to ship it from far away to the USA and it only costs $2?? The fashion industry emits about the same amount of greenhouse gases per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the UK combined. The industry’s reliance on making clothes in factories located in Asian countries, which often run on coal and gas, causes a lot of the GHG. Another issue- toxic dyes, “making it one of the largest polluters of clean water”. Polyester is a cheaper fabric that is often used and it’s created with fossil fuels-oil/plastic. It can shed microplastics into the water system when washed.�13 m. tons sent to landfill

Let’s watch this video that explains more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDLSRl9lJE0

Solution, wear clothes many times vs. the average 7 times, buy 2nd hand at thrift or consignment stores, mend holes or tears, bring clothes for recycling to H&M, Jeans to Levi’s or Madewell, shoes to DSW- most give a discount coupon with your contribution.�Fast Fashion Pollution Issues:

Cheap materials – Fast fashion uses cheap materials and toxic dyes to create its clothes, making it one of the largest polluters of clean water. Polyester is also one of the most popular fabrics in this industry, which is created with fossil fuels and can shed microplastics into the water system when washed
Manufacturing locations – To keep manufacturing costs down, fast fashion brands tend to make their clothes in factories located in Asian countries, which often run on coal and gas
Water consumption – It's estimated that the Fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic metres of water per year. Even natural fabrics can be a problem in the fast fashion industry. For example, to create a single cotton shirt, you’d need roughly 3,000 litres of water. Using this much water can increase the risk of drought, causing extreme stress on local communities
Transportation – Many fast fashion brands operate online, which means we have to take the delivery into account as well. For example, the combined annual emissions of postal services in the US, such as FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service are roughly equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 7 million cars. Some estimates show that shipping accounts for 2.5% of the world's total CO2e, which is estimated to rise to as high as 17% by 2050!
Waste – Fast fashion has led to a rise in the high turnover of clothes. Keeping up with fashion trends means that 85% of textiles go to the dump each year. Once people are done with the season’s best clothes, they’re onto the next
Recycle Clothes and Shoes here

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66+% of Americans are concerned!

40% of emissions

in the U.S. come from

5 basic household activities

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GAME TIME!

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

1. What is NOT an example of a Sustainable Farming practice?�

Planting cover crops
Using chemical fertilizers
Managing water pollution
Promoting biodiversity

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

2. What is the biggest category of items that gets thrown into the trash, according to EPA.gov?�

Plastics
Paper and Cardboard
Food
Old Socks

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

3. In how many years do scientists predict our landfills will be full? �

10
20
30
40

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

4. How long does it take styrofoam to break down according to Sciencing?�

1-10 years
20-40 years
100 years
500+ years

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

5. What are the 2 areas the Ocean Clean Up focuses on?�

Rivers and Oceans
Oceans and Landfills
Landfills and Rivers
Creeks and Oceans

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

6. What can you do to lower fast fashion pollution?�

Shop 2nd hand
Do a clothing swap
Send clothes to be recycled
All of the above

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

7. What percent of US emissions come from five common household activities (transport, heating, electricity, food, waste) according to PBS?�

1%
Up to 10%
Up to 40%
Up to 230%

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

8. Which Greenhouse gas warms the earth 84 times more than Carbon (CO2), according to the EPA? �

Methane (CH4)- cow burps, food breaking down
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)- synthetic fertilizer
Chlorofluorocarbons (CH4)- aerosols, refrigerants
Yurbofloroxides (Y2K)- oxides, iron

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Climate Solutions Quiz!

9. What is found on 88% of the ocean’s surface?

Microorganisms
Plastic
Plants
CO2

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We have Solutions: Join the �Cleaner Contra Costa Challenge!

CleanerContraCosta.org

Palo Alto Go Carbon Free Challenge

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Get Started

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Complete Profile: Household Carbon Footprint

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Add Actions: See the Action Categories

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Learn about the Impact of the Action

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Resources for your zip code

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Can I Really Make a Difference?

Example: Single Use Plastic Bags�

Per Person:

Reusable Bags saves 500 single use bags per year.

Habit Change:

If someone shops for 60 years (20 to 80 y/o), saves 30,000 bags

Community Group Power:

½ of CA Adult population shops= 12+ million x 500 bags= 6 BILLION plastic bags saved!

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High 5 to Learning Today

Check Off Actions Together

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Assignment

3 NEW Actions (make habit) by DATE!

EXAMPLES:

2-3 new actions due by X date -Usually 2-3 weeks later. Consider ones you checked off plus these here- Paper Towel Challenge (“Go Paperless”), carpool, turn stuff off- how many of you leave your room lights on often?

Shorter Shower- turn off water while soaping up or shaving.�

Bring your Own Mug- over 50 billion paper cups are tossed in the trash every year in the U.S.? That's a lot of trees! These cups are not recyclable or compostable because they are lined with plastic. Starbucks Rewards Members can earn 25 Stars per transaction in addition to the 10-cent discount when they bring in a clean, reusable cup to a participating store!

Go Paperless- can you round up some cloth napkins/towels/rags in a basket that you put next to your paper towels and convince your family to use those instead? Can you make 1 roll of paper towels last 3 months?

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Let’s log into website to look at more:

Drive Wisely- Reduce idling. If you know you will be stopped for more than 30 seconds, turn off your vehicle to reduce .
Who is traveling for Thanksgiving- offset air travel.
Eat Lower Down the Carbon Chain
Bike to School
Fix stuff

Bigger Ideas- plant trees at school? Clothing Swap? Trash-a-thon?

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Potential Internships $$

Good on college apps

Meet monthly for games, climate actions, community service, etc

Activities: Climate Careers Chat,Newsletters, Actions of the Month

Join our Sustainable Youth Club

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Any Questions?

Thank You!

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Sustainability Warriors

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