Vision

We were displaced last year from our old school location and relocated to our new site at Webber Road Elementary. Half of our school population was divided between two other schools. Our vision is to rebuild a sense of community at our new site. We started by restoring the land on our school grounds back to its indigenous state. When we started cleaning up the land, we found tires and styrofoam in the creeks and lots of garbage. Many of the plant species were invasive, too. The more we cared for the land, the more we wanted to do to protect it. As we learned about the UN Sustainable Development Goals in our grade 4 and 5 leadership groups, a group of students decided to form a club called We Can Make a Difference. Our mandate was exactly that.

Action

Our first project was to improve our recycling. We taught the whole school about the harm that plastic and styrofoam are doing to the earth and poor communities, especially. We purchased special colour-coded garbage cans for each class and taught each class how to use them.

We invited a representative from our regional district to come and talk to the whole school about our local recycling program. From this initiative, the idea of reducing plastic consumption came to be. As we sorted the garbage, we noticed a huge amount of plastic waste. This sparked the idea of using beeswax bags in our lunches instead of Ziploc bags. In this way, we could educate parents, too. We were counting over 100 Ziploc bags per week with just over 175 students. This is over 400 bags in a month. The LSF Grant allowed us to order one beeswax bag per student.

Reflection & Celebration

One of the barriers to reducing, reusing, and recycling is the cost. In order to supply every student with a beeswax bag, we had to order from a company out of the country. We had to ship by sea to avoid the huge import fees associated. This is a very valuable lesson in itself. How do we manage the costs to make this feasible? Once the bags arrive, we will do a cost analysis to show students that this is a viable solution and that the bags are worth the investment. When we send information home on where to purchase other reusable supplies, like lids for bowls and mesh grocery bags, we will send the information to manufacturers closer to home. The cost will be higher, but the products will pay for themselves. In our school newsletter and local papers, we will send out photos of our Ziploc wall and students using their new beeswax bags.

Links