• 文部科学大臣賞（最優秀賞）
• 優秀賞（個人の部）
• 優秀賞（グループの部）
• インプレッシブ賞（個人の部）
• インプレッシブ賞（グループの部）

文部科学大臣賞（最優秀賞）

左から
江島 恵莉さん　Ms. Ellie Eshima
国際基督教大学 教養学部 アーツ・サイエンス学科 ２年
大坪 直央さん　Ms. Nao Otsubo
上智大学 法学部 国際関係法学科 ２年
奥 はんなさん　Ms. Hanna Oku
上智大学 国際教養学部 国際教養学科 ２年

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地球を守れ！環境教育の新しいプログラムを提案

Hanna Oku

What does this number represent? It’s a big number. It never stops. It keeps rapidly increasing. This is actually the amount of waste being dumped globally this year. It’s pretty shocking.

Every year, the world produces about 2 billion tons of waste. The amount of garbage Japan produces annually is 43.98 million tons. What do you think is the solution for this problem? You might thought of 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But, if we were able to reduce the amount of garbage, there is no need to recycle in the first place. So, what is the most important action? It is to reduce.

As adults, many of us have become used to our wasteful lifestyle and habits are hard to change. To break this cycle, education must be started early and there is a strong need for children, the world’s future consumers, to know about the importance of waste reduction. So, we’ve come up with a groundbreaking program called “Zero Waste Camping.” Today, we, Hanna, Nao, and Ellie, would like to share this idea with you.

Nao Otsubo

Let’s look into the details of the camp. It’s a 3-day camp that is mean to be a competition. It can be located anywhere with access to basic shopping facilities. It challenges children to take eco-friendly actions and keep their waste to a minimum.

So, who are the participants? Our main targets are 5th and 6th graders. Why? This is because they are capable of understanding the environmental issues and also handling the assignments of the camp. The college students would be there as well, as organizers, and supporting the children. But essentially, the children would be the ones in charge and encouraged to think on their own and find solutions on how to live a life with less waste.

They are going to start the camp with limited items. They are only allowed to bring their own clothes, an empty water bottle, and one bath towel in their backpack for 3 days. Our program is only going to provide the place to sleep, bathrooms, and cooking ware in the accommodation.

Ellie Eshima

Now, let’s look into how the competition works.

The children would be divided into groups of 5. Each team would compete over the amount of eco points. Now, you might be wondering what are eco points. It is basically a reward system for children taking eco-friendly action. Each group would be given this evaluation sheet, which we call “E-chart.” Looking at this E-chart, children would get a general idea of actions that are good for the environment, leading them to altering their behaviors and actions to more of environmentally friendly ones throughout the camp.

Hanna Oku

Now, let’s look more closely at the activities. Our main activity is called “Ecopping” - eco and shopping! Cute, right?

Each team would be given a ¥20,000 budget and a tablet device for their research. At first, students will decide what they will need for their 3-day survival. Then, they will go buy the groceries and daily supplies while taking eco-friendly actions. Two college students will be assigned to each group for the support. The E-chart will be as a guideline for deciding their actions.

For example, if the group members refuse to use their plastic bag and use their own backpack to put their groceries or daily supplies, they will gain 10 eco points. Once they get their supplies, they will return to the campsite.

Ellie Eshima

Another activity that we have is E-cooking.

At the campsite, children would have to make their own meals. When doing so, they have to be careful not to make too much food because otherwise, it will end up as waste.

After each meal, the packaging of each product that they used will be counted, and the food leftovers would be weighed. Eco points would then be deducted depending on the amount of waste each group produced.

At this point, we want children to realize that food is actually a major source of waste, and food packaging can also result in a lot of waste.

Nao Otsubo

So far, we’ve introduced activities that mainly use their brains, but we also want to include activity where children can learn how to be smart consumers by playing games. So, we have eco-sports festival. Children can earn eco points through this activity as well.

One example in this is ball-toss game that we are all familiar with. But, it’s a bit different from what you did in your elementary school. Each ball represents daily items such as plastic bottles, battery or CD and there would be 4 baskets considered as trash bins; burnable, unburnable, bins and cans, and plastic. So, if I pick the ball CD, it should be thrown into surprisingly burnable basket. That’s how the children will learn how to dispose different types of trash in a proper way.

We have other sports that will be slightly altered for environmental education, such as energy cost relay, ecological chairs game and eco-soccer.

Ellie Eshima

On the last day, children would share their reflections on what they thought was environmentally friendly and what wasn’t. We want children to think how to make use of this experience to make changes in their daily lives.

After that, the amount of waste will be totaled, the final eco points will be calculated, and the winning team would be announced.

So, that is Zero Waste Camping. As you all know by now, Zero Waste Camping is not really zero waste. It’s inevitable for children to produce waste, but the purpose of this program is that children would realize how much waste they are producing on a daily basis and to realize that there are alternative actions they can take in order to reduce that waste.

The experience of thinking how to do so for 3 days straight can give the children the hints to also continue thinking how to reduce the waste and how to become smart consumers even after the camp.

Another major hope that we have is that children would share their ideas with their families, creating a change with the adults in their lives.

Hanna Oku

In conclusion, we would like to propose this Zero Waste Camping as a fun environmental educational program, which provides opportunities for students to learn about the importance of waste reduction and how they can take actions by themselves. Through this program, children will be able to learn while expanding their creativity and having fun.

Waste is a serious issue that we must find a solution before it is too late. This might be a small step, but educating the children, the future, is crucial.

Thank you!