Presentations & Workshops

Are you looking for an interesting and informative speaker for your school, church group, or lunch-and-learn?

The Allen County Department of Environmental Management provides ongoing education free of charge to residents, businesses, and organizations in Allen County. ACDEM staff are available to address the recycling and waste reduction needs of your group or organization.

ACDEM can also assist you in locating educational resources like videos, books, curriculum guides, worksheets, and sample lesson plans.

Such groups include:

Neighborhood Associations
Church Groups
Girl/Boy Scout Troops
Conventions & Expositions
Lunch-and-Learn Discussions
Schools & Universities
Environmental Groups
Employee Recycling Committees

ACDEM has several presentations available and each presentation can be tailored to suit any age or interest group. The presentation topics include, but are not limited to the following.

Backyard Composting

Composting turns yard waste and kitchen scraps into a valuable resource. ACDEM will speak on the benefits of composting, the importance of keeping organic material out of the landfill, and your composting options.

Household Hazardous Waste: Dangers & Identification

Many people do not realize that products used every day like pesticides, oil-based paints, and some household cleaners, are extremely hazardous to their health and to the environment. This presentation will assist in identifying the hazardous products you have in your kitchen, garage, basement, etc. Safety issues, proper disposal, and alternatives to using hazardous products will also be discussed.

Introduction to Waste Reduction in Allen County

This program is an overview of ACDEM's services. We will speak on ACDEM's programs including battery and bulb recycling, community recycling drop-off sites, electronics recycling, household hazardous waste disposal at Tox-Away events, education and outreach, as well as composting and yard waste options in Allen County.

Lunch Waste Audit

The average person creates 4.5 pounds of trash daily. Do you know what you throw away? ACDEM will lead participants in an interactive, judgement-free snapshot into "knowing what you throw" every day. Sustainable options and zero waste alternatives will be discussed following the waste audit.

Recycling Right

Do you know what is and is not accepted for recycling Allen County? Where do our local recyclables end up? What happens when the recycling stream becomes contaminated? From explaining the general rules of recycling to discussing what happens to your recycled materials, ACDEM will provide you with all the information you need to "Recycle Right."

Renewable/Nonrenewable Resources

What am I made of? Students will connect everyday objects to their original natural resources and learn the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling in order to preserve earth’s nonrenewable resources.

Vermicomposting

Learning about decomposers? Have ACDEM bring their worm bin and visit your classroom! Participants will learn all about the importance of composting to reduce food waste, as well as how a vermicompost breaks down food scraps with the use of worms.

Zero Waste & Sustainability

Most of us are familiar with the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." How do we reduce and reuse? What is sustainability and how can we make our community more sustainable? What does it mean to be "zero-waste?" In this hands-on activity, participants will learn simple swaps they can make to lessen waste in their life using ACDEM'S Zero-Waste Toolkit.