Last Thursday, ECOS club members met to plan our motivational act called Get Caught Doing Good. Four of our members went around at lunch today and put our plans into actions. They handed out candy, that was not individually wrapped, to students who brought in reusable containers and water bottles for their lunches instead of ziploc bags and plastic wrap. Unfortunately, we did not get to reward as many people as we thought we would. We bought two tubs of candy, assuming that at least one would be completely given out to students making efforts to reduce their environmental footprint. Instead, only half of one container was given out. This shows how many students actually throw something away everyday at lunch, contributing to the waste that Nantyr produces. This will not be the last time we do this. An announcement will be made tomorrow to notify students of the outcome of this event. We are hoping that this will motivate the student body to reduce their own individual waste by bring in reusable water bottles and containers. If our numbers of rewarded students increases next time we do this, then we will have successfully minimized some of Nantyr's waste and impact on the environment.
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Today was recycling day, which means every single class brings down their recycling and our amazing ECOS team sorts through it. There is always a ton of trash and many unknown liquids, but today was not as bad. Today, the bucket was less than halfway full and there was not nearly as much trash, today we improved. Our goal is to get the movement out to eventually eliminate the need of a trash bin where we recycle each week and to prevent any liquids from needing to be dumped. The movie making class brought some of their equipment down today and filmed some of our recycling efforts. The students interviewed a few ECOS members as well as a custodian to get their perspectives on our schools recycling job. The class is working to edit the clips together and create a promotional video to post to our school twitter, news, as well as to the blog. We hope that it will be a powerful message to everyone and that our recycling habits will continue to get better. Let's begin to think outside the trash and recycle!
This morning, our ECOS team met up, split into groups of two or three and went around to each individual classroom during first period to educate them on recycling. During this time, we helped them understand what goes where, and answered some questions on things the students and teachers were unsure about. This activity was to get the entire school on board with recycling and make sure that everyone knew how to properly recycle and to reinforce good recycling habits. We also gave teachers in each class the option of getting a compost bin. Their class will be responsible for emptying it when it needs to be emptied but the janitors will clean them each week to prevent them from getting gross. As of right now we have about seventeen teachers who have said that they wanted green bins in their classes which is a great start! At lunch, ECOS had a meeting to discuss future plans. As of right now, Nantyr has been approved for a 500$ grant that will hopefully being going toward Terracycle bins. Terracycle bins are recycling bins, but they are for materials that are a little bit more complicated to recycle. There are a wide variety of bins available for us to purchase. The small boxes average around 85$ so currently we are thinking of getting five small boxes, whether they all be the same but in different areas or whether we decide a variety may be better is still being discussed. On top of this, we are very close to putting in place a coffee cup diversion plan. We have been in contact with a lady who is getting bins made for Nantyr as a pilot school, and if all goes well, hopefully it will carry on to other schools as well. The plan is to have one bin, with two separate slots; one for coffee cups and one for the lids. Our hope is that people will empty their cups before placing them in this bin because it very well could turn into a huge mess. The team has considered several locations and we hope to have one on first floor, and one on second floor to keep them centralized and accessible to everyone. It's time for Nantyr as a school, to trash our old habits, and recycle our cups!
Opportunities come and go, so it is best to grab a hold of them when you have the chance. Helping to run the ECOS club alongside our teacher, Mr. Gaynik, was an opportunity to help make social change that we just could not pass up. However, neither of us thought that the change we are trying to make locally would end up being discussed globally. Just last week, board members and teachers from a school located in the Netherlands came to visit Nantyr shores. Kenzie and I got to present our plans for ECOS to them. The reaction we got from them was amazing. They loved our ideas and the fact that two students were trying to make such a difference in their school. They asked us many questions about the plans themselves and us. It was amazing to get to discuss things with them and see such a positive reaction. A few days later, our principle informed us that what we were doing with ECOS had been discussed at an even larger meeting the previous day in Toronto. He also told us that he wants us to skype with the people from the Netherlands in order to discuss our plans in further detail. This was amazing news to both Kenzie and I. Of course it is our dream to make social change globally, but never did we think it would happen this fast. It just goes to show how if you believe in something strong enough, you can accomplish anything.
Today, all members of the ECOS club gathered during the last period of the school day to collect garbage and recycling that had been littered on the ground outside of our school. Although a small step to helping our environment, we were definitely able to see the impacts that every individual person can have on our environment. We met during lunch to plan the areas each group would be responsible for. Members were told they were allowed to bring whoever they wanted to help out, this way, students that are not a part of the ECOS club were still able to help clean up our environment. We collected the tools needed for the project and then gathered again at the beginning of last period. Everyone had a strong understanding of their responsibilities and went off to their areas to start the job. When we had thoroughly cleaned up the property, we piled all bags into the middle of the basketball court. All together we collected about ten bags of garbage and recycling in one hour. A lot of us were appalled at this result. Completing this project really put our individual impacts into a new perspective. Many think that when they litter, it is just them doing this act, so it will not effect our environment. However, if everyone thinks this way, then the litter begins to add up. We took photos and later posted these on twitter in order to share what we had done with other students at Nantyr. We have now decided to implement activities like this each month with the ECOS club. No one is ever too small to make an impact, so let's begin.
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