Zero waste in schools? Why factoring in labour is essential

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Academic rigour, journalistic flair A sandwich sitting on a wax wrap on a table beside different foods and glass containers.

A parent shows glass and stainless steel containers, cloth bags and reusable wax wrap relied upon for a ‘zero-waste’ lifestyle in Victoria, B.C., in 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito Zero waste in schools? Why factoring in labour is essential Published: December 3, 2025 2.41pm GMT Mitchell McLarnon, Concordia University

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Mitchell McLarnon
Assistant Professor, Adult Education, Concordia University

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Mitchell McLarnon receives funding from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec, le Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec and the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada

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Concordia University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

Universitié Concordia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA-FR.

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https://doi.org/10.64628/AAM.wrjdgnxh4

https://theconversation.com/zero-waste-in-schools-why-factoring-in-labour-is-essential-263689 https://theconversation.com/zero-waste-in-schools-why-factoring-in-labour-is-essential-263689 Link copied Share article

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Over the last decade, I’ve worked closely with Montréal educators and students to better understand how climate change education occurs in schools — and how climate change curricula and policies shape everyday experiences there.

In 2019, as part of a wider climate action plan, Montréal ambitiously committed to transitioning to zero waste by 2030.

With hopes of further reducing landfill waste, 22 schools across four school boards in Montréal were promised compost collection as part of the city’s zero-waste plan.

I interviewed three teachers from three different schools, one principal from another school and a school board employee to hear their analyses of how this program unfolded. The research suggests that to effectively expand composting and zero-waste climate action through schools, the labour of educators and other school workers must be factored into a “just transition.”

As a conceptual framework and practice, a “just transition” is an approach for connecting mechanisms of climate action with social fairness.

Importance of ‘just transition’

Montréal has goals to use a zero-waste model to reduce its emissions because food waste accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of emissions in the city. The aim is to ensure food waste is either being composted or that still-edible food finds its way to people experiencing food insecurity.

As communities grapple with climate change mitigation and adaption, efforts to realize global and local climate policy ambitions like zero waste are often premised upon the concept of a just transition.

Just transitions typically seek to reconcile environmental and social issues with a low-carbon and fossil-fuel-free future. Much of the research on just transitions encircles worker and labour rights from the energy, manufacturing, transport and related sectors as they move toward zero-emission outcomes.

Vegetables wrapped in plastic bags in a grocery store.

Just transitions are concerned with a low-carbon future as well as social issues. Carrots wrapped in a plastic bag are seen at a market in Montréal on June 13, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

My research points to teachers and other educational workers as key contributors for policy development toward a just transition. Because ecological and social crises are constructed and reproduced through power imbalances, a just transition away from fossil fuels and ecologically destructive practices also needs to be a departure from unequal and extractive ways of relating.

Zero waste by 2030?

During the pilot phase of the zero-waste plan’s implementation in schools, educational workers I partnered with stated they experienced a top-down policy implementation that created additional labour and misunderstandings while undercutting existing school composting programs and other established processes.

School board and city policymakers did not initially consider who would actually take on different compost-related tasks like sorting and transporting waste, and how this might intersect with labour relations and collective bargaining agreements.

As such, teachers and other school staff were compelled to take on additional and onerous tasks, such as organizing waste across the school, raising awareness and communicating with city workers.

For example, one participant said the only support and resources offered to their school by the city came in the form of two large composting bins and a short workshop on what goes into the city’s compost bins. They also felt there was an assumption that the compost would simply sort itself when someone needed to be present to ensure that organic matter ended up in the right place.

When the implementation of city-mediated school composting didn’t work well, some teachers intervened. In different schools, each having its own set of patterns, behaviours and peculiarities, varied responses emerged to the composting program.

One educator opted to work with the city on structuring the kind of compost support that would be pertinent for their school, while another motivated their students to participate during instructional time.

Teachers as key players

Increasingly, climate change education is included in provincial curricula. Along with this are mounting pressures on teachers to add climate change content into existing courses. In this way, teachers are being positioned as key players in addressing the global climate crisis.

Unfortunately, decades of austerity reforms to public education are now coupled with a growing list of unmet social, environmental and health needs (for example, pertaining to child and youth mental health, food insecurity and nutrition) that schools are tasked with addressing. Yet teachers are not structurally supported to take on this important new work.

It’s important that teachers and other educational workers be included in any large-scale policy implementation addressing students or educational spaces. For example, beyond the zero-waste project, the Canadian government announced a National School Food Policy in 2024 to address hunger and health inequities among Canadian youth, boost their mental and physical wellness and promote environmentally sustainable practices. Teacher expertise is crucial for equitable outcomes.

Read more: School lunches, the French way: It's not just about nutrition, but togetherness and _bon appetit_

Recognizing people’s labour

Montréal’s 2024 zero-waste report (Montréal objectif zéro déchet) notes that the city now has 418 educational institutions with organic waste pickup. However, how much school waste is being diverted through the program and how it fits into the larger city’s zero-waste plans are unclear.

Policymakers mean well, but municipal policies need stronger social and structural supports to help stakeholders meet climate-action goals.

Compost bins next to garbage bins on a street.

Garbage seen next to recycling bins in Montréal in June 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

If our governments are indeed committed to connecting social justice and climate action, then they should also provide additional funding and labour to local schools to acknowledge the immense efforts required to develop and sustain these kinds of climate policies.

To sketch out where we might begin, I encourage governments to:

Realize that climate policy like composting and notions of zero waste in schools are dependent on the labour and care of students and multiple education workers, including custodians, teachers, day-care workers, principals and others who fell outside of the scope of my research;
Engage, recognize and compensate teachers and other school staff for their time, feedback and expertise on issues that impact them;
Incorporate teacher, student and school-based reactions to proposed projects’ overall goals. Use their input to make the proposed budget realistic and relevant;
Commit to transparency that allows local schools, teachers, education workers and organizers to receive meaningful and detailed updates on climate change mitigation data, benchmarks and budgetary allocations; and
Rather than contracting or using “experts” from outside of a school and its community, work with people in the education sector to hire local climate-engaged teachers and school staff to manage the initiatives.

All climate change mitigation efforts from cities, schools and individuals ought to be applauded and encouraged for attempting to better improve and adapt to the current climate crisis.

But as a society, we shouldn’t pretend that ineffective responses are good enough — instead, climate-engaged educators and policymakers must resolve to learn from experience and insight to improve responsive policy and practice.

Global warming
Climate policy
Climate change education
Montreal
Zero waste
Just transition
climate change mitigation

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