Format: presentation, team game
Length: 45–60 minutes
Requirements: none
Topics/subjects: natural resources, conservation, importance of waste reduction and reuse/recycling, collaboration
Recommended companion lessons: Journey of Waste and Sort, Waste Audit
Summary: Students will examine the environmental consequences of consumer choice. The class will discuss the natural resources used in creating, packaging, and shipping items, and how "reducing" and "reusing" can preserve resources and reduce environmental impacts. Students will understand the variety and amount of resources required when they buy new goods and learn to recognize the environmental and social benefits of reuse and borrowing. Students will also more deeply connect with the concept of finite resources and the current impact of our consumer society on such resources. This lesson includes playing a game from Puget Sound Energy and Thurston County (WA).
