Grand Rapids Children’s Museum Inspires Young Stewards with Emphasis on Circularity

The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum is all about play. But they also believe that play has the power to transform. And because of that belief, the museum has worked hard in recent years to be a model of environmental stewardship for its approximately 200,000 visitors a year.

At the heart of its efforts are the three Rs of waste management — reduce, reuse and recycle — with a particular emphasis on reuse.

“We would like the children of Grand Rapids to see Grand Rapids as a community where they can grow, as well as a place they can help to grow,” said Ryan Leland, now former facility manager of the museum. “Both of these goals align with our sustainable practices and values.”

The ways in which the museum works towards its sustainability goals are myriad.

For example, at the descriptively named “Make It, Take It” exhibit children can create crafts from discarded materials and scraps donated by the community, learning about the worth of recycling and reusing materials while they express their creativity through play. Meanwhile the aptly named “Boxes” exhibit allows cardboard boxes to be restructured into fun shapes.

The “Boxing Station” and the “Make It, Take It” table offer options for children to create art out of recycled materials.

Museum visitors also will notice the facility’s waste-sorting system which includes weekly recycling and composting, through Organicycle, as part of the staff’s efforts to help Kent County meet its goals to reduce landfill waste 20 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2030. About four years ago, the museum noticed an obvious increase in overall materials in its waste streams and initiated a recycling program called SORT, which introduced waste-sorting stations throughout the museum with clear visuals to distinguish recycling from trash bins.

Composting at the museum was the brainchild of director of exhibits and facilities Jake Bouck who found the idea to be an easy sell with senior leadership.

“I brought up the idea of adding compost pick-up to our already existing recycling program, and it was well received,” he recalled of the push to add one more option to the museum’s growing collection of sustainability tools.

The museum also works hard to minimize water and light usage. A pair of recently added water bottle refill stations have saved the equivalent of more than 27,600 water bottles. And to make energy usage more efficient, the museum conducted an energy audit which resulted in 80-90 percent of the old fluorescent lighting in the museum being replaced by LED lighting. They were able to recycle their old light bulbs through Voss Lighting. The museum also works with Comprenew, a local recycling business, to recycle any old electronics, uses a Crayola recycling program to recycle markers and works with the City of Grand Rapids to recycle old building materials and paint used in exhibits. They also have been invited in the past to Steelcase’s local annual recycling event program, where they have been able to recycle old office supplies and electronic items.

Such local partnerships are particularly pertinent for the museum and have been so since it first made its debut as a museum “without walls” in August 1993 at Woodland Mall when it featured just two exhibits: “Funstruction” and “Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!” Both were a huge success and exposed over 30,000 children and their families to hands-on exploration and learning. In the mid-1990s, a capital campaign was launched to help fund the renovation of the museum, exhibits, a two-year operating budget, campaign costs and an endowment and $4 million was raised thanks to generous community partners. Over the years though the emphasis on learning through play has never gone away. And thanks to its current and future efforts that emphasis will be sustained for generations to come.

Over 80% of the lighting in the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum uses high-efficiency LED bulbs.

The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum believes that play is essential for healthy development, has the power to transform, benefits all ages, and benefits families of all shapes and sizes. They are committed to inspiring a passion for play to their guests through programs and events, while removing barriers so everyone has an opportunity to play within their walls. Their mission is: We are an environment for play. We advocate for the value of play. We build minds through play. Play is essential for healthy development. Play has the power to transform. Play benefits all ages. Everyone has the right to play. Play benefits families. Learn more at https://www.grcm.org/