Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance Awarded $100,000 Grant to Expand Don’t Waste It! Curriculum Across the Southeast

Don't Waste It! is a new educator guide to waste management. The guide includes 11 lessons covering five themes: municipal solid waste, recycling, plastics, composting, and landfills. Don't Waste It! Is designed for both formal and non-formal educators with lessons for pre-K to 12th graders that can easily be adapted for adult audiences. Each lesson includes a group activity, independent practice, extensions, and additional activities. 

Developed by North Carolina’s Chatham County Solid Waste and Recycling, Don’t Waste It! Is going to be expanding through the southeast.  The Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA) has been awarded a $100,000 environmental education grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Over the next two years, we’ll be creating new state-specific versions of the guide for Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida (LEEF) and then launch in-person and virtual training opportunities for educators in these states to learn the curriculum.  

"The Don’t Waste It! project will help current and future educators across the southeast understand the systems for solid waste, recycling, and composting in their state.  We're excited to provide educators across our region with resources and lessons to share this knowledge with students, in order to inspire their local communities to get involved with composting, recycling, and other waste reduction activities," said Don’t Waste It! Project Coordinator, Lauren Pyle.  

The Kentucky Association for Environmental Education (KAEE) is the fiscal agent for this project.  The project will be led by Lauren Pyle of the Environmental Educators of North Carolina and Shannon Culpepper of Chatham County Solid Waste and Recycling.  For more information, contact Lauren Pyle at director@eenc.org.

LEEF is honored to be a part of this amazing project!