permaculture

82 Facilitator’s Handbook for Permaculture Workshops

Creative thinking : Community garbage math

Method : Participant analysis

Tools : Paper and pens for participants

References : IDEP waste math factsheet

Objective : Participants gain awareness about the scope of waste problems

The facilitator should write the following exercise on the board large enough for everyone

to read and/or hand out the IDEP waste math factsheet to all the participants.

Ask the participants to either work individually or in groups to find the answers to the

following questions.

• In an average small village 1 family produces about 1 plastic bag of garbage
  each day. If there are 2,000 families in a village, how many bags of garbage does
  that village produce each day?


• 1 garbage truck holds about 200 bags of garbage. How many trucks of garbage
  does the village produce each day?


• There are 365 days in a year. How many trucks of garbage does the village fill up
  each year?


• You can fit about 400 trucks in a football field. How many football fields of
  garbage does the village produce in just 5 years?

Once the participants have their answers they can compare results.

The facilitator may choose to conduct a group discussion about the issues

that this exercise has raised in participants’ minds.

EXERCISE

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