Find a new way: Sustainable Options for Ditching the Plastic

Our school's sustainability student group the EcoJimmies would like to host a sustainable swap week at our school over the lunch hour. We recently attended a youth conference where we connected with a number of local organizations and participated in workshops addressing sustainable lifestyles. We would like to incorporate what we learned at the conference into the sustainability week at our school, including recycling T-shirts into reusable shopping bags, making our own toothpaste and air fresheners and making fermented foods. We will set up a week at school and each day will feature a new product to make and use (with glass packaging) that replaces a disposable or unsustainable product made of plastic or excessively packaged in plastic. Lunch hour sessions will be organized and facilitated by our student group and the Green Action Centre and Aurora Farm. All students and staff will be able to participate in the noon hour workshops - making household cleaners, recycled T-shirts, assembling a litterless lunch kit (fork, knife, spoon, straw), book and clothing swap, etc.

Mise à jour (2 mai 2019)

A week of sustainable swaps was planned for Earth Week April 22 - 25, 2019. There were a number of activities happening over the lunch hour that were available for all students to participate.
Monday - Recycled T-shirt bags
Tuesday - Bath Bombs/Lip Scrubs
Wednesday - Beeswax Wraps
Thursday - Sustainable Reusable Lunch Kits

Mise à jour (6 mai 2019)

We held a week of "sustainable swaps" over the lunch hour for all interested students. We wanted to show students and staff the options we had for all of the single use plastic we use daily. The EcoJimmies, our school's sustainability group, were involved in the planning and executing the events each day. On Earth Day, April 22, we turned old T-shirts into reusable shopping bags. On Tuesday, April 23, we made bath bombs and lip scrubs with all natural materials, using reusable containers. On Wednesday, we made beeswax wraps to replace plastic wrap and on the final day, April 25, we put together a sustainable lunch kit with included a pouch made from recycled T-shirts, thrifted cutlery and a stainless steel straw. We had between 25-40 students who participated each day with requests for us to do it every week. We will be planning to do this again next year with new swaps.