
Zero Waste Classrooms: Sustainability in Action
EU law ranks prevention above recycling. Most schools start at the bin. Five days working down the hierarchy to a Zero Waste Day you can run.
About this course
EU waste law ranks recycling third out of five. Almost every school starts there — which is why the bin by the door fills up with the wrong things while the two steps above it, the ones the law puts first, never get tried at all. Monday — sort and weigh what this group has…
Methodology
the week's opening data does not come from a case study. Participants sort and weigh waste the group has produced together since the morning, so the audit method is learned on material that is physically present and can be argued about.
from Tuesday, each day takes a step of the EU waste hierarchy in the order the Directive sets it out (Friday takes the last two), and each day ends with one written output the next day builds on — so Friday is working on what Monday produced.
every measure designed during the week is checked for what it costs, who maintains it, and what happens to it when the person who started it leaves.
What you'll take home
Run a waste audit — sort, weigh, record — and read the result as a composition rather than a total.
Place your own school on the five steps of the EU waste hierarchy and name the steps it has never used.
Design one prevention measure and one re-use system for your own building, each with a running cost and a named role behind it.
Plan a Zero Waste Day end to end: date, tasks, materials, and the before-and-after measurement that shows whether it changed anything.
Explain what the 2025 revision of EU waste law added on food and textiles, and which parts of a school sit inside what it measures.
Other dates for this course
- 11–15 Jan 2027 Mersin Planned
- 22–26 Feb 2027 Rome Planned
- 19–23 Apr 2027 Antalya Planned
- 19–23 Apr 2027 Bremen Planned
- 21–25 Jun 2027 Rome Planned
- 19–23 Jul 2027 Bremen Planned
- 18–22 Oct 2027 Antalya Planned
- 13–17 Dec 2027 Rome Planned
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What's included
Not included
Aggregated across all EMA courses, not specific to this session.
+ educators from 20 more countries across Europe and beyond
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