Waste Minimization Tips
Waste Reduction Week in Canada takes place every October to raise awareness to help us reduce waste in our daily lives. The program's educational resources and "take action" messaging empower all Canadians to adopt more environmentally conscious choices. Participating in Waste Reduction Week is a great way to raise awareness at your school about issues that the team has identified as being important to them or to learn about a new area.
Visit: https://wrwcanada.com/en for themed days.
Recipe for Waste-Free Lunches
Introducing waste-free lunches can help your school reduce the amount of garbage you produce.
Running a waste-free lunch event encourages students to reduce waste in an area where they can have control. Class activities can link waste-free lunches to larger issues related to the environmental and economic impacts of waste disposal.
Here are a few suggestions for running a waste-free lunch event
Make announcements leading up to the waste-free lunch day, letting staff and students know that it is coming and reminding them to bring a waste-free lunch.
Put an announcement in the school newsletter or send a flyer home (see next page) to help parents understand the purpose of a
waste-free lunch day and to ask for their support.
Invite the environment club or a class to create posters and displays promoting healthy waste-free lunches and depicts how this goal can be accomplished.
Have students fill out a personal pledge to bring a waste-free lunch and attach the pledges to a large drawing of a lunch box or a waste free lunch banner prominently displayed.
Turn over all garbage containers in the lunch area and put a sign on the container explaining that it is a waste-free lunch day and that all waste will need to be taken home. (This is called a "boomerang" or "pack it in, pack it out" lunch.)
Recognize achievements by offering points, tickets for a draw, or by posting or announcing names of students/classes and staff who regularly bring waste-free lunches.
Locker Clean-out
An organized locker clean-out is a great way to capture a lot of useful things that might otherwise end up in landfills. Have members of your EcoTeam or another group/class organize the whole school so that students can sort their lockers’ contents into reusables, recyclables, organics, and real garbage.
Decide the following:
When will the clean-out take place (connect with the office/Caretaker/a staff advisor/student council)?
How (and how far in advance) will students and teachers be informed (PA, notices, posters, e-mail, via home form)?
How many categories will you separate locker contents into: paper; containers; other recyclables; reusable school supplies; clothing; sports equipment…as well as real garbage?
What type of sorting or storage containers will you use (recycling boxes and/or toters, cardboard boxes, clear garbage bags, clean garbage cans)?
How many containers and sorting stations are needed for the whole school, floor, hallway?
Who, if anyone, will monitor the sorting stations?
Where will your school’s collected reusable and recyclable materials end up (recycling toters/bulk bins, special recycling programs, ArtsJunktion or other charities, saved in the school, or taken home)?
Ideas to consider:
Save single-sided paper for reuse as draft paper or for a notepad
Save supplies and make them available for students in need or send them to ArtJunktion. Include pens, pencils, erasers, binders, rulers, etc.
Take pictures of your EcoTeam during your locker clean-out and post on the school website
Weight the reusable and recyclable materials you’ve collected to find out how much you kept out of landfills
