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Tuesday, 6 September 2016
Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Zero Waste Education: Can we say no to disposable plastic this year?
Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Zero Waste Education: Can we say no to disposable plastic this year?: As with the start of each school year, there are always so many things to organise. Shoes, pants, shirts - check. Backpacks, crayons, marker...
Can we say no to disposable plastic this year?
As with the start of each school year, there are always so many things to organise. Shoes, pants, shirts - check. Backpacks, crayons, markers - check. Lunch kits, healthy snacks, water - check.
Okay, so lately I have noticed on my many tours to the pharmacy, the grocery store as well as all of those non- Pemberton stores that there are so many different types of containers, lunch kits and water bottles to chose from that I almost have choice overload.
Why so many shapes and sizes? Can there really be this many different types of snacks- and bread only seems to come in a square so this one should be easy. Do I buy 2 containers, 4 small ones, or go look at another store? Who knew this could be a challenging part of my shopping experience?
While perusing the aisles, I notice the sandwich bags, freezer bags and snack bags closely hug their container allies, waiting to be picked up to help make sense of this lunchtime conundrum. How can I ensure my little ones bellies are satisfied for a whole school day, while keeping them healthy, with easy to open containers and not create too much waste in the process?
One decision I can live with for the 2016/2017 school year is no soft plastic in lunches, meaning #2 and #4 plastics. While ziplocks can generally be recycled if you take the zipper off and bags can be collected and recycled, really how good are these single use products? At 3 cents a bag, could we not use this money in a better way?
Let's all work together this school year to conserve resources in whatever way we can. Whether it is to use multiple use containers, ban bottled water, reuse clothes to friends or buy in bulk, there are many ways we can begin to change this throw away routine and create a new one that is better for everyone.
Keep your eyes peeled for a new contest for school classes throughout the SLRD and your children could win cool prizes by taking action. Let's make this school year the one we say "no way" to waste!!
Okay, so lately I have noticed on my many tours to the pharmacy, the grocery store as well as all of those non- Pemberton stores that there are so many different types of containers, lunch kits and water bottles to chose from that I almost have choice overload.
Why so many shapes and sizes? Can there really be this many different types of snacks- and bread only seems to come in a square so this one should be easy. Do I buy 2 containers, 4 small ones, or go look at another store? Who knew this could be a challenging part of my shopping experience?
While perusing the aisles, I notice the sandwich bags, freezer bags and snack bags closely hug their container allies, waiting to be picked up to help make sense of this lunchtime conundrum. How can I ensure my little ones bellies are satisfied for a whole school day, while keeping them healthy, with easy to open containers and not create too much waste in the process?
Let's all work together this school year to conserve resources in whatever way we can. Whether it is to use multiple use containers, ban bottled water, reuse clothes to friends or buy in bulk, there are many ways we can begin to change this throw away routine and create a new one that is better for everyone.
Keep your eyes peeled for a new contest for school classes throughout the SLRD and your children could win cool prizes by taking action. Let's make this school year the one we say "no way" to waste!!
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
When the Students Take Charge- Oh What Things Can Happen
Congratulations to Ms. Mc Laren's class at Signal Hill Elementary School in Pemberton for holding an extremely successful Waste Reduction Competition! A further congratulations goes to Ms. Siblock's Grade 2-3 class and Ms.Treadway's Grade 5 French Immersion Class who won the competition for producing the least amount of waste in their classrooms for two weeks.
It was the idea of Ms. McLaren's class that they wanted to do something to really help reduce the schools impact on nature. So they started by making a plan regarding how they could convince the other students to not make so much waste.
They decided to have a competition with all of the classes and the winner of each level ( primary,intermediate) would have a pizza party and could watch the movie " Wally" while they ate pizza.
So the class got to work planning, they made posters for each classroom about how to reduce waste and collected enough buckets, thanks to the Pemberton Valley Supermarket and the Pony Espresso to provide each classroom with 4 collection containers for the competition- one for garbage, one for compost, one for paper and one for containers.
At the start of the competition, the students quickly realized that all paper towel could easily be composted so they set up another container at the sink of each class to capture paper towel. Paper towel is very easy to compost as it does not have any smell, attract flies or cause a mess. This was an easy fix.
Next, they realized there was no container for plastics so Carney's Waste System was quickly called who dropped off a plastics bin beside the paper totes in the hallway.
Finally, the students were asked by teachers to have a compost bucket with a lid, because sometimes food waste is a bit messy.
Because of the efforts of Ms. McLarens students, Signal Hill Elementary went from a school with a minimal waste reduction system to now having compost bins in every classroom, recycling containers in every classroom and a good system for removing these items. What started as a small competition to see who could produce the least waste has turned in to a great program for waste reduction.
Three Cheers for all the Students in Ms. McLaren's class for having such a huge impact on Signal Hill Elementary!!
For the Principals and Teachers in SD48. If you would like help starting a similar waste reduction campaign at your school, contact Kathy at slrdzerowaste@gmail.com. I will happily meet with student groups to kick-start a competition!
It was the idea of Ms. McLaren's class that they wanted to do something to really help reduce the schools impact on nature. So they started by making a plan regarding how they could convince the other students to not make so much waste.
They decided to have a competition with all of the classes and the winner of each level ( primary,intermediate) would have a pizza party and could watch the movie " Wally" while they ate pizza.
So the class got to work planning, they made posters for each classroom about how to reduce waste and collected enough buckets, thanks to the Pemberton Valley Supermarket and the Pony Espresso to provide each classroom with 4 collection containers for the competition- one for garbage, one for compost, one for paper and one for containers.
At the start of the competition, the students quickly realized that all paper towel could easily be composted so they set up another container at the sink of each class to capture paper towel. Paper towel is very easy to compost as it does not have any smell, attract flies or cause a mess. This was an easy fix.
Next, they realized there was no container for plastics so Carney's Waste System was quickly called who dropped off a plastics bin beside the paper totes in the hallway.
Finally, the students were asked by teachers to have a compost bucket with a lid, because sometimes food waste is a bit messy.
Because of the efforts of Ms. McLarens students, Signal Hill Elementary went from a school with a minimal waste reduction system to now having compost bins in every classroom, recycling containers in every classroom and a good system for removing these items. What started as a small competition to see who could produce the least waste has turned in to a great program for waste reduction.
Three Cheers for all the Students in Ms. McLaren's class for having such a huge impact on Signal Hill Elementary!!
For the Principals and Teachers in SD48. If you would like help starting a similar waste reduction campaign at your school, contact Kathy at slrdzerowaste@gmail.com. I will happily meet with student groups to kick-start a competition!
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Thursday, 3 December 2015
The Little Community of Skatin that Could
The Head of the Lakes school, twenty four students in total, and 80 km's down the Lillooet Lake forest service road is trying their best to reduce waste. The community recently built a recycle, waste depot and closed their landfill. All they need now is for the little depot to open. People at the school collect cardboard and paper and bring it to Mt. Currie while they await the arrival of their new facility and hopefully soon they will be able to really tackle waste reduction with proper sorting stations and bins. I recently went to the school to give a waste reduction workshop and the students were very keen and aware of the great benefit waste reduction has on the environment. They all received reusable grocery bags to give to mom and dad to bring for their grocery shopping, because eve a grocery bag can make a big difference in the landfill. The smallest little town with its action can make a big difference. Thanks to the Head of the Lakes School for inviting the SLRD Waste Reduction Educator to your school!
Learning about Zero Waste from Lillooet to Squamish
Good news! Over 200 students from Lillooet to Squamish took part in Waste Reduction Workshops in November.
We talked about subjects from which recycle bin the pop bottle goes in, to how compost is made and why it is not cool for Daddy to throw his old barbecue in the forest.
Even children as young as five are learning to put recyclables in the right spots. Great job everyone.
At Myrtle Philip school in Whistler, with the help of the PAC and the great work of custodial staff, teachers and students, there is a whole new recycling system which is working very well. There are 5 different bins in each class that everyone is now getting used to. This will help reduce the waste stream to next to nothing from Myrtle Philip elementary. This shows how with a little money and effort, we can make big gains in waste reduction.Three cheers for Myrtle Philip Community School!!
A special thanks to Mr. Reimer's class for letting us put your picture in our blog and for showing us how all your new bins work.
Even children as young as five are learning to put recyclables in the right spots. Great job everyone.
At Myrtle Philip school in Whistler, with the help of the PAC and the great work of custodial staff, teachers and students, there is a whole new recycling system which is working very well. There are 5 different bins in each class that everyone is now getting used to. This will help reduce the waste stream to next to nothing from Myrtle Philip elementary. This shows how with a little money and effort, we can make big gains in waste reduction.Three cheers for Myrtle Philip Community School!!
A special thanks to Mr. Reimer's class for letting us put your picture in our blog and for showing us how all your new bins work.
Friday, 10 April 2015
How do we go Waste Free?
"In Nature There is no Waste." Everything has somewhere to go. When salmon spawn and die, they are dragged up unto the shores by bears, eagles, wolves and other animals and become food. The waste from these animals goes back into the earth to help plants grow. When plants die and even while they are still alive sometimes, microorganisms and fungi eat away at them for their own survival. All of the things that live in nature find uses for all of the other things in nature in a wildly chaotic yet simple, practical way and so there is no waste.
The only being that creates waste in nature is "us", and nature does not understand how to deal with our waste. So it just piles up, and up and up and sometimes down, down, and down into the ground where we cover it up in landfills. The trouble is, this is not a solution. The waste is still not natural and is not healthy for nature to deal with.
So, the question is how do we go Waste Free? Do we just stop buying things? Do we stop using things? Well, not likely, but we can look at everything we use and decide if we want to be part of the problem or the solution.
The 3r's ( reduce, reuse, recycle), coupled with a good organics diversion program can go a long way toward going "waste free". After you remove all the recyclable items from your garbage, and then you remove all of your compostable items, you may find you don't need a large garbage can anymore because you hardly create any garbage- then you are getting somewhere towards going " waste free".
Earth Day will be celebrated on April 22nd. That would be a great day to start making an effort to try to work towards going "waste free"; because the more landfills we have to build, the less room there will be for bears and plants, fungi, trees and eagles and other beings to help keep nature "waste free" by doing their jobs.
If you have questions about how to start going "waste free" send me an email, and I would love to help. triskele.jenkins@gmail.com
Next week we will be starting school Earth Day Campaigns so check back to see what your school can do.
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