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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Heritage Woods Secondary’s Environment Club

The Environment Club at Heritage Woods Secondary  went above and beyond to reach their wider community with their recycling knowledge.

Realizing that making a big impact would require outreach to the broader community, 35 passionate students in the Heritage Woods Environment Club spread their recycling message of ‘Know Where It Goes, Think Before You Throw’ through an entertaining video about the new district-wide sorting bins. They were able to divert 21,600 beverage containers from the landfill and engage approximately 32,000 students in nearly 70 schools.

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Tsi Deldel Elementary School’s New Community Recycling System

Students at Tsi Deldel School were faced with a real challenge when they set out to promote recycling in their small community.  Until recently, the small First Nations community of Tsi Deldel in Tsilhqot'in territory, Central British Columbia had no recycling infrastructure.

“Before we started the recycling program, our community was often littered with containers,” said Moray Kennedy, a teacher at Tsi Deldel Elementary School. “Now, residents are starting to deliver their recyclables right to our collection sheds at the school.”

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