Palsson Elementary School’s Rockin’ Bottle Drive Program

Students at Palsson Elementary decided to try out their first bottle drive fundraiser back in January 2018. After their first bottle drive was a huge success, Palsson set an ambitious and encouraging goal to use their bottle drive money to fund a 5-month drum lesson program for groups of third-grade students.

By advertising the school’s bottle drive across Lake Cowichan, the students are able to collect beverage containers from residents of their entire community, who have banded together to support the school’s initiative. Students were also responsible for collecting the recycling from classroom recycling stations each day to return to the depot. The recycling program didn’t just encourage recycling awareness in Lake Cowichan – it promoted leadership and responsibility among Palsson students, as well as building stronger relationships between families and the local community.

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Holy Cross Regional High School Marketing & Promotions class’ successful green campaign

The Marketing & Promotions 11 class at Holy Cross Regional High School decided to use test their marketing skills by encouraging their fellow students to recycle and “go green” through their months-long #hcgoesgreen campaign.

The hub of the students’ campaign was their @hcgoesgreen Instagram account, where they continue to share inspiring environmental posts and images. During the school year, the students used the account to promote contests for prizes and pizza lunches that encouraged students to engage by posting about their contribution to the school’s recycling initiatives online.

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Sir William Van Horne Elementary School’s new healthy habits

In 2019, the Sir William Van Horne Parent Advisory Council (PAC) decided it was time to grow “healthy habits” for students and the community by starting a recycling program. Noticing that refundable beverage containers do not end up in the proper recycling bin, the PAC signed up Van Horne as a Return-It School and launched a collection program that educated students, parents, and teachers about recycling while collecting refundable containers for refund each school day.

Recycling doesn’t stop after school though – the Van Horne PAC shared information on its website to help parents contribute their beverage containers from home to the school. They even created a helpful video showing parents how they can use Return-It Express to make sure their deposit refunds go directly to Van Horne’ recycling program. Their efforts came in handy when schools were closed in March due to COVID-19, and didn’t stop the parents – Van Horne families continue to return their containers in support of the school!

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Anahim Lake Jr. Secondary’s community recycling initiative

Students at Anahim Lake Jr. Secondary School, located in the remote Cariboo region village of Anahim Lake, know how important a fundraiser can be. Attending a remote school of just 48 students means the cost of field trips can be sky-high, so they’ve been banding together to raise funds for annual school trips with bottle drives since 2014!

Anahim Lake bottle drives do more than just fund field trips, though – through their efforts, the students have visibly cleaned up their community by getting all of its residents on board with keeping recyclables off the streets.

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RETURN-IT SCHOOLS 2019-2020 WINNERS!

It’s been a great 2019/2020 school year for the Return-It School Contest, which received recycling success stories from B.C. elementary, middle and high school students. Every spring, hundreds of schools who take part in the Return-It School program have an opportunity to share and enter their recycling stories into a contest. Return-It’s School Contest is focused on empowering the leaders of tomorrow by providing an incentive for students in B.C. to take their recycling initiatives to the next level. More than two million students have been inspired by the program over the last 19 years. This last year alone, 337 schools took part.

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