Waste Wake-Up Call: Reused, Recycled Supplies Help Teachers Combat Pandemic Waste
Teaching during a pandemic produces tons of plastic waste and added expense. But the Athens-Clarke County Teacher Reuse Store is helping teachers keep their COVID classrooms affordable and environmentally friendly.
When coronavirus cases started climbing last March, schools across the U.S. shut their doors — but the announcement didn’t have that summer-break feel.
Weeks of fear and uncertainty were followed by a head-first dive into online learning, complicated by unfamiliar technology and isolation. But for Paulding County middle school family and consumer science teacher Breane Wood, another more hidden problem plagued the coronavirus classroom: waste.
“I do think that we are environmentally harming the environment, because of COVID,” said Wood. “In some ways, you think it would get better because it’s virtual, we could cut down paper. But just in that piece alone, we’re going through and using stuff a lot more than we would have.”
Now, one year later, Wood says it’s hard to tell if her Georgia county has mastered online learning. What is clear is that in-person teaching suddenly requires more supplies than teachers are used to thanks to social distancing protocols.
Wood now must ask her students to provide their own supplies that she once held in community sets. Through virtual classes, the financial burden this places on families becomes more apparent.
“I don’t think they were aware that they were in as much poverty as they are. And it became obvious in the video,” she said. “And that’s one thing, we don’t typically get into the homes of students.”
While a majority of Wood’s students were online last fall, she couldn’t allow her 90 in-person students to share pens and paper. She says more and more is wasted every time group work becomes individual work.
“A lot of times where I would have done a group thing before, and they could have shared something like paper, now they each need an individual sheet, even though it’s a quick brainstorm, because we can’t share that kind of stuff,” said Wood. “So as the year went on, the community supplies came back out. And I just have to hope that the kids wash their hands well.”
And it’s not just notebook paper.
“Kids can’t drink directly through the water fountain. So if they forget their water bottle, I keep plastic cups. So I’m going through a ton of plastic cups,” Wood said.
Another hurdle lies in accessing these supplies. One in four Athens-Clarke County children live in poverty, and the county’s poverty rate is the highest in the state. Many low-income families in counties across Georgia rely on teachers for access to school supplies even in normal circumstances.
“And while it’s funded by my program, I couldn’t really fund every kid,” said Wood.
Needing more than normal is out of the question for kids across the county.
That’s where budget- and eco-friendly reuse stores are turning things around for teachers like Wood.
“I’ve been able to help with those needs a little bit as they arise,” said Abigail West, coordinator for the Athens-Clarke County Teacher Reuse Store.
Located within Athens’ Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, the Teacher Reuse Store has aided sustainable teachers on a budget since 2015. Since it’s mostly maintained normal operations in the pandemic, it’s no surprise that West says she learns a lot from talking to the teachers.
“Their needs have been ever-evolving throughout the pandemic as they keep having to pivot back and forth,” said West.
Teacher Reuse has aided teachers when the need for unusual school supplies skyrocketed during their juggle between in-person and virtual learning.
“In the beginning, we had a bunch of whiteboards, and we got cleaned out of whiteboards because they needed them as a backdrop,” said West.
Whiteboards, binders, file cabinets and more — all sourced from the community and given to local teachers for free. West recalls supplying a recent customer with old computer monitors for students needing one to complete virtual classwork.
This isn’t far off from what Wood is facing in her county across the state.
“Our kids in our county are not equipped with school technology,” said Wood. “So they really need that supply. Because all of a sudden, I became a technology specialist to all my students. It’s a supply of time.”
Time that Wood and like-minded teachers could spend planning curriculum that works for in-person and online class. Time that is instead being used to gather extra supplies that increase the classroom waste already exaggerated by the pandemic.
“When you have waste at work or school, it’s a little more out of sight out of mind because you don’t have to deal with it,” said Denise Plemmons of the Athens-Clarke County Solid Waste Department. “You just put it in the trash, and then somebody else takes it to the dumpster.”
Plemmons knows how hard reducing waste in public school can be. She’s watched COVID-19 further jeopardize school waste reduction programs thanks to more paper, napkins, wipes and water bottles being consumed.
“And then the mask and gloves are a whole other thing,” Plemmons said. “But my silver lining to COVID is hopefully some wake-up calls.”
Athens-Clarke County public schools are back in-person as of February this year, and thanks to this “waste wake-up call”, more teachers like Wood are turning to the Teacher Reuse Store and other sustainable sources for the high demand in school supplies. Not just for their budget, but for their students.
“We’ve definitely been in those spots where we’re just not sure what to do next to support them,” said Wood. “But I mean, that’s in a perfect world, right?”
Thanks to sustainability workers like West and Plemmons, this perfect world looks a bit more attainable.
