Schoolwide Recycling & Composting Program

Starting in September 2011, St. Anne school will be initiating a compost program as well as revamping our paper and plastic recycling program that is already underway.

St. Anne currently has an "EcoTeam" which consists of six school leaders. The leaders are from grades 7 and 8. Additionally, each classroom has appointed 1 eco representative to monitor recycling activities in the classroom. The role of the EcoTeam is to plan and implement programs in the school. Furthermore they educate the students around the importance and methods of composting and recycling.

To properly implement this program, we feel it is necessary to provide our EcoTeam leaders with a detailed in-service from Waterloo Region Waste Management. This opportunity will properly inform the leaders of the "Do's and Don'ts" around composting in the school. In turn, the leaders will bring their knowledge to the classroom representatives who will then educate their peers.

Update (February 10, 2012)

This year, St. Anne school has been undergoing large scale renovations. A part of these projects has been the addition of five "Molacks" bins. Each bin has its own purpose (garbage, cardboard, fine paper, tin/glass/plastic and compost). Last June, St. Anne received its "Silver Eco Schools" designation. To coincide with this designation, St. Anne students are now engaging the practice of "Boomerang" lunch in an attempt to reduce garbage accumulation here at school.

Once our Molack bins are ready for use, students will routinely gather the appropriate materials here at school and sort them to assist in the care of our environment. Students will work in teams to accomplish this task. A "green" mural is being created near the area where the teams will meet to sort the gathered materials. This mural will be a symbol to students, staff and parents of the ongoing efforts our school community to be environmentally friendly.

Update (June 22, 2012)

All of our construction here at St. Anne is finally completed and our school wide recycling program is now in full swing. We have teams of students from grade 2 to 8 working collecting our "grey" bins of fine paper and "blue" bins of recyclable containers. In grades 2, 3 and 6 we have begun piloting the initial phase of our organic recycling collection. The organic recycling program will continue to expand throughout the school during the 2012-2013 school year.

Our Eco Team, which has representatives from all grades, continues to provide information and education to all members of the student body. As a school we have grown tremendously in our understanding of how to make a difference environmentally in our school and homes.

As of June 2012, St. Anne school has been certified Gold in the Eco Schools Program. Great work!

Update (June 22, 2012)

This is our second year of implementation as an Eco School and this year has brought many changes for us. We added 20 more trees to our yard, implemented a whole new recycling system and doubled the number of students on our Eco Team.

The 20 new trees we added this year will provide much needed shade to our building and the students as they play outside on our large, grass yard. These trees are a continuation of our Greening Project which began in 2007. We have seen many positive changes in our students’ activities during recess as a result of the Greening Project. It has also allowed many opportunities for “outdoor classroom” activities. The Treegator watering system placed on each of our new trees will ensure that they are sufficiently watered throughout the year. This limits the amount of volunteer hours needed to water the trees in the summer.

With our new recycling system we can now recycling with more efficiency as the Molox are outside the doors of the school. We are also educating our students and staff about the importance of reusing paper because the paper recycling bins are much smaller in the classroom. With our new system came new responsibilities to our Eco Team. We created three teams: blue bins, white bins and green bins. These teams followed a schedule of collecting and reporting on how each classroom was following the recycling rules. With these new responsibilities we wanted to create an area where the team could get their materials, check schedules, and meet to discuss issues. We wanted this area to be a visible reminder of our greening focus and create a sense of pride for our Eco Team. This is when we created our Green Team Centre, complete with banners.

We are very excited about the changes we implemented this year and are appreciative of the grant we were given to support our initiatives. We were so successful, in fact that we moved from silver to gold for our Eco School certification! Next year we would like to build on that success by refining and continuing to educate our students on recycling. We have many ideas about adding more plants to our Peace Garden in the courtyard, using games and healthy competition to educate and inspire all students to recycle, and taking our Eco Team on two field trips: one to the Waste Management Centre and the other to the Eco Schools Symposium.

Thank you again,

Melissa Whiteford
Grade 3 Teacher
St. Anne School, Kitchener