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Match your Skills with an Environmental Solution!

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We all have unique talents and skills. Use yours to come up with a creative environmental solution. Look below for what talents you have and an idea for how you could apply your talents to a project. Remember to keep the Waste Hierarchy in mind when choosing a project.

First consider, what talents do you have?

  • Communicating, Teaching, Public Relations and Marketing?
    Design a promotion for reducing waste at a school, business or other setting!
  • Engineering and Inventing?
    Create a new system or a new use of materials that reduces waste or prevents pollution!
  • Art and Design?
    Invent a streamlined package that leaves less trash!
  • Business-minded?
    Make a business more efficient with changes that reduce waste and save money!

Below are some more ideas for Be SMART Conservation Challenge projects. This is not a list of all possible projects.use your imagination to come up with a project that really excites you!

  • Devise a way to make a product last longer or to restore, repair, or reuse discarded items. Then take steps to encourage use of the idea.
  • Help a business or school "go virtual"; show them how easy and paper-saving e-mail can be.
  • Help your cafeteria switch from disposables to reusables.
  • Teach what you learn about waste reduction to others. Measure the difference it made.
  • Convince a school or business to switch to concentrated nontoxic cleaners.
  • Encourage a grocery store to hand out cloth bags to customers in order to reduce the use of plastic bags. Set up a program to compost food waste from a cafeteria, grocery store or restaurant.
  • Persuade a school or business to prevent pollution, conserve resources and save money by switching to energy-efficient lighting.
  • Investigate methods of conserving water and put them to work.
  • Learn about stormwater pollution and take action to prevent it.
  • Teach smart purchasing habits to students. By encouraging people to buy concentrates and look for products that reduce packaging, you will be cutting down on waste.

Even more ideas can be found by looking at topics that winners of the now-discontinued Be SMART Scholarships tackled. Browse their project summaries using the links on the left side of this page for the years 2000 - 2007.

Once you have settled on an idea, you are ready to brainstorm solutions!

Next: Brainstorm