Living Classroom for Zero Waste
We now have engaged an opportunity to bring many of these ideas together through education and direct community engagement.
RPCA is participating in a project involving CAFES and Carleton University’s SOCI/ANTH 2180: Foundations in Community Engagement, coordinated through Erica Shardlow of CAFES and Carleton instructor Dr. Cihan Erdal.
The initiative brings 40–60 university students together with Ottawa community associations to work on neighbourhood waste-reduction projects.
The students won’t simply study Riverside Park from a classroom.
They will meet residents and community representatives, participate in a neighbourhood walking tour and help develop practical community-engagement projects. Those projects could include infographics, videos, social-media materials, webpages, community conversations and small events.
That makes Riverside Park itself part of the classroom.
- And the hydroponic farm gives us a tangible place to begin.
- What happens to a head of lettuce from seed to table?
- How much waste does that journey produce?
- Can packaging be eliminated?
- Can unused food be recovered?
- Can students help design a better system?
- And can what we learn at the farm eventually help us think differently about waste throughout Riverside Park?
Previous participating community associations valued both the communication materials students produced and the fresh perspectives young people brought to community issues.
That makes this more than a university assignment.
It becomes another form of intergenerational community building.
