Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-Free World

The first point to note is that the publisher of Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-Free World has ‘walked the talk’. The copyright page, placed opposite the title page, states:

The book you’re holding is part of the circular economy! We’ve used long-lasting, uncoated wood-free paper. We chose to make it without a book jacket, which is often not recyclable. It’s printed with vegetable-oil links and uses biodegradable lamination on the paper so it will break down more easily. Plus, we hope copies of this book will end up in schools and libraries, where they can be enjoyed again and again and again.

The credibility of this book is immediately enhanced by this information.

The text and illustrations combine to present complex concepts that may be unfamiliar to young readers, with a focus on empowering young students to find and implement actions for a sustainable future.

The wonderful illustrations are the definite strength of this book. Illustrator Roozeboos uses “gouache, coloured pencil and crayon” to portray a very active young person and her companion butterfly interacting in a blend of recognizable and imaginative locations, such as a garden, underwater, a backyard, a city, underground, and looking out into the universe with feet firmly on the planet Earth. The people in the illustrations have different skin tones, clothing, ages, and some have glasses, some are in wheelchairs, but all are active and involved.

With the guidance of caring teachers, perhaps students as young as Grade 1 may benefit from being introduced to some of interrelated concepts involved in the circular solutions for a waste-free world, but, because of the complexity of the topic, very young students may be more mystified than enlightened or engaged.

However, Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-Free World will be an excellent introduction and review of these concepts with Grades 2-5 as students begin to explore the many facets of sustainability through the primary and junior school curriculum.

Of course, loops get knotty sometimes. People will say this kind of planet-changing work is too hard.
They’ll worry that jobs will disappear and money will be lost.

But the old system is broken. We’ve acted like the world is a line, when really it’s a circle.

There will be problems - sticky knots and tricky tangles.
But we are creative, and loopy by nature.
We’ll invent new jobs and businesses and communities.
We’ll come up with bendy, twisty, circular solutions we can’t even dream of now.
We’ll do better because we must.

Near the back of Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-Free World there is a selection of examples from around the world of ways that people are building circular systems.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the winners’ medals were made from up cycled e-waste, including metal from more than five million cell phones!

There is also a list of nine ways that readers and their families can take part in circular systems. For example,

1. Buy less stuff and when you do buy, consider purchasing secondhand, trading with others or choosing products that are sustainable, durable and can be reused.

Loop de Loop: Circular Solutions for a Waste-Free World is an imaginative look at a very complex and critical topic. If you can find the funds to add this to your resources on sustainability, teachers and students will enjoy the whimsical presentation of new and old ways to recycle, upcycle, and reduce.