Tsi Deldel Elementary School’s New Community Recycling System
September 30, 2019
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.”
Kalamalka Secondary’s Environment Club has a vivid understanding of the need to protect the environment – the school itself is named after its neighboring lake, Kalamalka Lake. But until the Environment Club was started two years ago, students and staff alike had little awareness of the amount of materials ending up in the school’s waste bins.
Supported by an improved recycling system that accommodates a wider range of materials, students have recycled close to 10,000 beverage containers. In addition to this, the students have started a composting system that in turn supports the school’s ‘Kalagarden’, which has yielded a plentiful variety of vegetables and herbs.
It’s been an amazing 2018/2019 school year for the Return-It School Contest, which received countless recycling success stories from B.C. elementary, middle and high schools. 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. Last year alone, 287 schools took part. As we celebrate 25 years of environmental stewardship, the School Contest continues to underpin a mandate of empowering change through education.
We are excited to be supporting the Ocean Ambassadors program and connecting it with the Return-It School Program. This spring, through Return-It School, we'll be helping to send some students to the Ocean Ambassador program that may not have the means to attend the program otherwise.
Rutland Elementary - 1st place Elementary Division 2017/2018
November 29, 2018
At Rutland Elementary School in Kelowna, we have had in-school beverage container recycling for many years. So far this school year, our 424 students have diverted 5842 beverage containers from the landfill and the Parent Council has used the $296.45 collected towards the purchase of musical instruments such as xylophones, metallophones and ukuleles.
We have three collection bins set up in the hallways, one in each portable and one in the staff room. Twice a week a parent volunteer sorts and counts the containers and, every month or two, takes the bags of containers to our local Columbia Bottle Depot at 680 Dease Rd.
