An examination of KCI's new recycling policies

By: Maya Paddon

This past January, a group of passionate grade nine students in Mr. Court’s semester one geography class introduced a new school-wide recycling program. While the previous recycling system collected solely paper and cardboard items, the updated process allows KCI staff and students to recycle materials that weren’t previously accepted, including plastic and canned products, as well as glass containers and bottles. 

These new policies, however, were in the works for quite some time before officially being initiated, according to Mr. Court. He noted that himself and his geography students took part in a United Nations Sustainability Expo in December, where the attendees were challenged to return to school, and take action to meet one of the 17 United Nations Sustainability Goals. Mr. Court explained, “We chatted about this together, and realized that KCI did not have a full recycling program. Plastics, and metals, and all of these other things weren’t being recycled. So we tackled that.”

Mr. Court mentioned that after contacting some board members, and discussing advertisement methods, his class was ready to launch this updated recycling program. He proceeded to discuss how the new system works: “What we received from the waste management company was a commingle bin. And commingle means all of the materials - paper, plastic, metals, everything - gets thrown in the same bin. Then, twice a week, waste management comes and gets the bin. They take it to their transfer station, and from there, waste management puts all of the commingled stuff together, and takes it to Toronto, where there is a single-stream technology where it separates everything on a conveyor belt.”

Mr. Court was thankful that his students got to work on such an impactful project, stating, “I felt so excited for the students, just seeing them jump right in. They got to do what somebody would do in real life to make a difference.” He added, “They worked so hard, but also went through the ups and downs of being discouraged, and I think some of those roadblocks are important to learn.” Mr. Court also expressed his gratitude towards the custodial staff at KCI: “Our custodial staff does wonderful work,” he mentioned. “And they were supportive of our idea, even though it is not in their contract to do recycling.”

Although Mr. Court’s grade nine students created these policies, Ms. Hill Wood’s grade ten Green Industries class has taken on some of the recycling collection since the updated system began. Ms. Hill Wood noted that her class “is very much under the leadership of Mr. Hallas’ class,” who is also heavily involved with KCI’s recycling process, to show them “how it’s done.” She also explained that she’d love to expand the recycling duties throughout the school: “Eventually we would like to have other classes take it on. We would love for it to be something that people really enjoy doing,” she noted. 

Ultimately, those involved in establishing and maintaining KCI’s new recycling program are pleased with its success thus far. Some individuals even recommended additional strategies to make KCI a more environmentally-friendly building. 

Eli Harrison, a grade nine student and one of the lead organizers of the updated recycling policies, suggested reducing our waste as much as possible, explaining, “Even though recycling is amazing, what’s even more amazing is not producing any waste. Some great ways to do that are buying a reusable cup, or limiting your buying of things, especially non-recyclable things.” Eli also noted that working alongside the Green Industries class could generate unique suggestions and systems, as well. 

Ms. Hill Wood communicated further ideas to increase eco-friendly practices at KCI, primarily encouraging staff and students to think about “reducing, reusing, and recycling” throughout their daily lives. However, she also enthusiastically pointed out the power of student action: “The student voice is powerful,” Ms. Hill Wood said. “When you have a group of students who are turning around and saying “we need to do something,” you can clearly see that that yields results and changes,” she concluded.