PREFACE
Pick any item – a shirt (cotton or polyester?), microwave oven, aluminum lawn chair, lawn mower (gas or electric), outdoor barbeque, basketball, bicycle, or cell phone. Where did every raw material and component come from? Were the people and their families who mined or synthesized each item allowed to enjoy benefits from their labors, and was no harm done to their health and the environment? The same questions arise during assembly and manufacturing; and, were exposure safeguards in place during these processes? What about the cardboard, paper, tape, and protective wrappings used during packaging and shipping, and the costs of transporting them from original sources to assembly and then to Ithaca? And, finally, what actually happens to each component during the recycling or waste disposal process?
OVERVIEW
Words Into Deeds is partnering with Finger Lakes ReUse and area youth, grades preK-20, to promote greater awareness on the part of their and the community of the immediate and hidden costs, both financially and environmentally, of producing, packaging, transporting, using, then either disposing of or reusing common commercial goods. The project aligns with Sustainable Development Goal #12: Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, and broadly intersects with other goals as shown below. All represent unprecedented challenges to current and future generations.
Sustainability, a key element of SDG #12, is integral to making progress in many other goals that affect all our lives.
Finger Lakes ReUse is a local not for profit founded in 2008 that embraces the concept that reconditioning and reusing are more cost-effective and much better for the environment than discarding https://ithacareuse.org/. Donated items are restored and if needed repaired, including electronics, then sold at minimal costs primarily to lower income clientele. In 2017 over 100,000 visits were recorded at their two sites in Ithaca. ReUse additionally provides job training opportunities, and recently launched a community funding program that links with local service providers to provide lower costs for essential items. ReUse has been awarded a two-year NYS-DEC Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant that includes financial support for educational programs.
THE PROGRAM
Students currently enrolled are from preK through College levels, private and public schools and youth groups. After on-site tours and introductions to ReUse mission and resources, age-appropriate discussions of SDG#12 and its broad overlap with many other SDG’s are scheduled. and human rights documents, using for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and workshops on social justice and equity, using the metaphor of a Ladder of Prejudice. Practical applications are introduced by examination of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, followed by a focus on the many facets of SDG #12.
In preparation for a tour of the ReUse store, area students participating in the Cornell STEP program discuss reuse vs recycle vs discard practices as they relate to SDG#12.
Community youth produce artistic interpretations of the SDG’s using ReUse materials at an open Pop-Up arts event co-organized with Ithaca’s Open Art Hive.
An important component of each student’s project is bringing findings to broader audiences. In addition to activities with staff and clients in the ReUse stores, student are expected to make presentations to their peers, community groups, and media outlets. In so doing, each participant gains skills and develops a heightened awareness of the important role that informed, engaged young citizens can play in affecting community actions.