Last week we handed the organic bins out to the classes that requested them we thought everyone knew what they were doing, but on Friday we ran in to some problems. A few classes didn't really understand how the bags worked. A lot of the classes left the bag of bags in the bin and put the organic waste on top of the bags instead of putting on in it. we didn't really expect this issue but we adapted to it and followed up this week and answered there questions and explained how to properly use the bags.
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We’ve got the staff our next step to reach our goal is to educate the masses. That meant doing classroom visits. Every week our team sorts the recycling and sees what people do right and what people do wrong, so we went around to all of the classes third period and ran through the normal speech of what goes where using some real examples from the classroom bins and answered any questions they had. The students seemed really interested and a lot of them honestly didn’t know what went where so this was a great chance to truly educate them. Along with educating the students we asked the teachers if they wanted a green bin. We got a great amount of classes that wanted green bins, 14 class rooms. It’s very exciting to have this amount of interest.
First campaign of the semester and we aimed pretty hard. Working with Mr. Bernardi and some help from an IT guy at the board office we collected the printer data for the month of October and discovered our school prints a lot of paper every month so we wanted to target that and went for the biggest culprits, the staff. So off to the monthly staff meeting our team went. We started off by showing the video made last year about the important of recycling and then presented the staff with our challenge, a 10% reduction campaign school wide. We got some great feedback and were complimented for being going in front of all of the staff and speak. Let’s see how November goes.
Second semester has just begun and it is already going to be a busy one. We have received our green bins to place in classrooms as well as some signs to go with them. We hope to have these out by the end of this week in order to create a habit of using them early in the semester. We have also been given the news that because of the budget for our school, unfortunately only one green bin can be purchased for now to mount in the hallway. After much discussion, we have decided to place in in the middle of the main hallway as a central area, also because everyone eats in the main hall mostly anyway. During the pilot of the green bins we are putting in, Sally from the Solid Waste Management Department has asked us to monitor the bins for contamination and come up with a compilation off data. This will include photos, notes, and surveys to ensure proper use of the compost bins throughout the week . If all goes well, she wants to try getting green bins in other high schools as well! Although our main bins have been limited, it will not hold us back, we are going to continue to move forward with our plans and we look forward to seeing how this goes.
A few weeks ago, we had some of our recycling work filmed, as well as some interviews both with our team, and others. We talked about some of the major issues we see in the way our school recycles and just common issues in general. We asked a few students what their thoughts were as well and got some interesting responses. There was also a clip filmed to show that you should empty your liquids before throwing out your cups and bottles. We got pretty creative with some of the footage but still have to do some editing. We're looking forward to getting it finished so that we can share it on our website as well as in schools and on the School Board site. We're excited to see the end result and hopefully make an impact on several people.
In the past few, and upcoming weeks, our ECOS team is taking on the Enbridge Energy Challenge. Maeg and I unknowingly signed up for this challenge months ago and recently received prize packs in the mail. This led us to look further into the challenge. Essentially, there are several elements of this challenge and each part is worth a certain amount of points. We as a team are working to achieve the highest amount of points and hopefully win one of the three cash prizes. This will help us fund different activities within our group to further our impact in changing the way people treat and view the environment. There are several audits, artworks, events, and plans that we must come up with to acquire these points. We are in the running with approximately forty other schools, which means we have to work hard. We have until the end of March and are very excited to carry this into the next semester and hopefully beyond!
Our ECOS team has met almost every thursday since October. We have accomplished many things including a school yard clean up, recycling and compost pick up, and rewarded those who chose resuable containers for their lunches, but this is only the beginning. We have other spectacular things heading to Nantyr, like wider green bin usage in classes and have even mapped out a coffee cup diversion plan for our school. We, as a group, have worked extremely hard so far, and will definitely be continuing our efforts throughout the rest of the year and the ones to come. Kenzie and I are very thankful for the group that came to us this year. They are determined and passionate about reducing Nantyr's environmental footprint. Two of our team members volunteered their time to hang up blue bin recycling posters in each classroom of the school. These posters show what items can be placed in the blue bins. This will be helpful to students who are unsure. They will also reinforce what we spoke of during our classroom visits last month. We have noticed great changes in the recycling at Nantyr, proper use of the recycling bins. Seeing a difference in students actions motivates us to continue doing what we are doing. We cannot wait for the events and actions we have planned over the next few months.
Before the break, Mackenzie and I met with a few women from the school board who are involved in the environmental sector to discuss our action plan for coffee cup diversion. We got many things accomplished, including the ordering of the new bins and determining the area of where each one will be placed in Nantyr. It was decided that we would have three bins, one for each floor of the school. These bins will be placed next to recycling and garbage bins, and mounted to the wall so that it is easy for students and staff to access. Our custodial staff has been extremely supportive and has offered to empty the bins regularly. ECOS has agreed to help us monitor the use of the bins, to make sure that student are using them correctly. To ensure this, upon returning to school, ECOS will once again make classroom visits, when the bins are put in place, to educate students on what can actually go in green bins.
During our first round of classroom visits a few weeks ago, we had about fifteen teachers ask for green bins in their classrooms. These will also be brought in in the new year. Teachers will have to empty these on their own, but again the custodial staff has offered to wash them out whenever necessary. This new year calls for new, environmentally friendly habits at Nantyr. ECOS and certain members of the board are working hard to help make this easy for students and staff at Nantyr. We hope to put the coffee cup bins (with signage) in within the next two-three weeks. We have officially put in an order for 4 Terracycle bins! These are bins that you can purchase for specific products and the company will recycle those items. We purchased 3 office supply bins, these recycle things like pens, pencils, old staplers and other unused or broken office supplies. We also purchased an art supplies bin, this one recycles art materials such as paint brushes, paint tubes/cans/bottles, watercolors, crayons, charcoals, canvases, sponges, notebooks, easels, markers, tape, and paint remover bottles. These will help us to create even less waste within our school because so many of these things are common supplies that we cannot recycle in our usual bins. Getting approved for a grant has helped us to pay for these bins and hopefully we will find funds to continue to use Terracycle bins within our school!
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