An Introduction to Toxins & Waste Law

This section will focus on legislation that governs the release of toxins and waste into our environment. Toxins and waste, and, in particular hazardous waste, are ugly by-products of industrial, agricultural, and other urban processes, such as manufacturing and oil and gas extraction.  As you probably already know, these industries are important to the economic prosperity of Albertans and to people across the country. Knowing this, you’re probably not surprised to hear that in a country as resource rich as Canada, toxins and waste are a major issue facing our natural world. The situation in Alberta is no exception, particularly due to our heavy reliance on the oil and gas sector as well as other primary resource extraction.

Toxins & waste is one of our topical sections focused on a more discrete area of the law – the others include species, water, energy, and climate change. You can jump around these sections in any order and can focus on a particular topic that is important to you or you can start here and move through each one – this will help you understand how each area of environmental law is connected. Start with the links on the left hand side, and as you complete each sub-topic, you will follow the links at the bottom of each page (or the links on the left hand side) to the next topic in order.

Teachers:

• Lesson plans are designed to be used in conjunction (and often after) spending time on the website content itself. They are adaptable and can be used in their entirety or parts of each can be drawn on to create content appropriate for your grade level and curriculum.

Students

• The website content and lesson plans can be completed in groups or on your own to expand your thinking. Make sure to check back with the website content if you have any questions or aren’t sure how to finish.

Additional Resources

• Don’t forget that you can always look to our Resources page for some other websites and sources of information both to help with the lesson plans and to expand your knowledge even further!

 

Toxins and Waste >>

 

 

 

Toxins & Waste

• An Introduction to Toxins & Waste Law
• Toxins & Waste
• The Canadian Environmental Protection Act
• Alberta’s Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act
• Toxins & Waste: Canadian Case Studies
• Section Review

Lesson Plan: Fundamentals of Environmental Law

Lesson Plan: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Lesson Plan: Tragedy of the Commons

Lesson Plan: Climate Litigation

Curriculum Connections

Newsletter

Join our new Alberta Environmental Laws 101 Facebook group to ask questions, participate in discussions and keep up to date on environmental news. Please share this widely so that the high school teachers and students in your circles hear about this great new resource for supplemental online learning. Alberta Environmental Laws 101 Facebook Group