PLT Awarded for its Solid Waste Education Program

Washington, DC, October 21, 1999. The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has recognized the American Forest Foundation's Project Learning Tree with its 1999 Gold Award for School Curricula Excellence. Project Learning Tree (PLT) received the award for its Exploring Environmental Issues: Municipal Solid Waste curriculum. Part of a series of high-school-level modules that focus on environmental issues, critical thinking, and problem solving, the solid waste module is distributed to educators across the country through PLT's teacher-training workshops.

The SWANA School Curricula Excellence Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding educational programs in the municipal solid waste field that include creativity, design, and use of resources. The award was presented today at SWANA's annual meeting in Reno, Nevada.

Adena Messinger, Curriculum Project Coordinator for PLT, accepted the award on behalf of PLT and the American Forest Foundation (AFF). "The decision to develop a supplementary high school curriculum on municipal solid waste was a milestone for AFF," she said. "The curriculum module has been available nationwide for two years now, and the great reception that it has been receiving from educators has exceeded our expectations."

In 1997, PLT added Exploring Environmental Issues: Municipal Solid Waste to its series of supplementary environmental education materials for high school educators. This PLT municipal solid waste curriculum, which took two years to develop, introduces students to many of today's solid waste management options including source reduction, recycling, composting, waste combustion, and landfilling. The activities challenge students to analyze their school and community solid waste management systems, to examine their personal waste management practices, and to think critically about solid waste management issues. Some 15,000 copies of the curriculum have been distributed to educators nationwide.

The curriculum provides hands-on learning opportunities so students can better understand the solid waste management issues that they explore. There are also opportunities throughout the module for educators to invite guest speakers and for classes to take field trips so that students can interact with local solid waste professionals. The curriculum is interdisciplinary and can be used by educators teaching subjects such as science, economics, civics, environmental science, language arts, math, social studies, and more.

Since its inception in 1973, PLT has emerged as one of the country's leading and most widely used environmental education programs. More than 500,000 educators have been trained to use PLT materials that reach more than 25 million students in the United States and abroad. PLT consists of a network of 3,000 grassroots volunteers and more than 100 state coordinators working in conjunction with teachers, schools, state agencies, nature centers, and youth groups to provide workshops and in-service programs.