Zero Waste Challenge

In the Earth Doctors Zero Waste Challenge, students take their environmental learning home and recruit their families to join them in a seven-day experiment to create less waste.

The challenge begins by looking beyond the garbage bin. Through an interactive presentation, students investigate the embodied resources hidden inside everyday products—the energy, water, raw materials, transportation and manufacturing that went into making something before we ever threw it away.

Then it's time for action.

Using the Zero Waste Card Kit, students explore practical strategies for preventing waste, reusing materials, changing everyday habits and rethinking what their household really needs. The Zero Waste Poster helps families choose actions and track their challenge throughout the week.

Students can also use the Zero Waste face-in-the-hole cutout to turn participation into a fun, visible community challenge—celebrating the people taking action and encouraging others to join in.

The goal isn't simply to learn about waste. It's to try something different for seven days, observe what happens, and discover which changes families could keep doing.

Students and families will:

• Discover the energy, materials and natural resources embodied in everyday products
• Investigate what happens before and after something reaches the trash
• Use the Zero Waste Card Kit to identify practical actions
• Choose waste-reduction strategies to try at home
• Take part in a 7-Day Zero Waste Challenge
• Track their actions and progress using the Zero Waste Poster
• Make environmental action social, visible and fun
• Identify which new habits they could continue after the challenge ends

Comes with:

• Zero Waste educational presentation
• Zero Waste Card Kit
• 7-Day Zero Waste Challenge resources
• Zero Waste action poster
• Printable worksheets and downloads
• Face-in-the-hole photo cutout activity
• Resources for bringing families and communities into the challenge

Earth Doctors workshops are designed for teachers, parents and environmental educators who want to bring more hands-on, action-oriented environmental learning into classrooms and communities.

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