Trash talk
Contest winners: These kids really know how to talk trash
June 4, 2010
Ellen Moorhouse
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
The decision was difficult and the jury was at first divided.
But the winners of Trash Talk’s inaugural garbage contest have been chosen.
In first place are four Grade 12 World Issues students from Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill. Amber Li, Christine Lee, Grace Lim and Ying Li put together a thoughtful proposal for introducing the green bin to their school.
As contest judge Catherine Mahler, co-ordinator with the Ontario EcoSchools, observes: “I love that they did the survey to see if the students and staff would use it.”
They also followed the contest guidelines well, and as Mahler notes, demonstrated good research skills.
The students described the benefits of diverting organics from landfill, identified how many bins to purchase and where to station them, determined that the school’s waste removal company could pick up the organics and specified how they could evaluate the program success.
“The students show a polish at that level,” says contest judge, Peter Cantley, who heads Loblaw’s floral and garden centre business, of the high school students. “There’s great creativity, and they’re taking action. It’s very encouraging to see.”
In second spot are Grade 5 students from Mazo de la Roche French immersion school in Newmarket. This entry, which recently won a York Region District School Board Eco-Team award, came with its own video, demonstrating superior script writing skills accompanying a keen environmental conscience.
These environment club members noticed a pizza box problem one day when they were washing out green bins, as part of the organics program they have implemented. Whenever the school had pizza days (twice a month), there were so many boxes (70 in all) they overflowed the recycling bin, necessitating a second bin pickup, more truck traffic and more pollution.
“They thought there’s got to be a better way, so they decided, ‘Well let’s just stomp them down, and let’s stomp to music,’” Karen Craig-Chizmeshya, parent volunteer coordinator for the environment club told Trash Talk.
They have different music each time, and sometimes invite the primary students to come out and stomp. After all of that exercise, the pizza boxes easily fit in one bin.
“They’re making it fun,” says Mahler. “This is important at the elementary level.”
There’s a serious side, too. Explains Mahler: “Mazo’s entry demonstrated that they understood the impact of all the pizza boxes: extra trips by the recycling trucks, which contributes to air pollution, as well as the observation that the overflowing bin didn’t close properly so recyclables were blowing around the neighbourhood.”
Plus other students could apply the Mazo routine, given that pizza days are an institution in many schools, Mahler says.
In third place, are the children from Jackie Ahmad’s senior kindergarten class at Springfield Preparatory, a private school in Mississauga. They had been thinking about what they could do for the earth, Ahmad said, and came up with the idea of collecting little bits of paper from around the school for composting.
Why not the recycling bin? A representative from Peel Region’s waste management department had come to the school and explained how loose shredded paper should be composted because of problems sorting it. (In Toronto, shredded paper must be put in a clear plastic bag for recycling.)
Students created illustrated explanations of their idea for composting the bits of paper, and Ahmad, who had noticed the Trash Talk contest, sent them in. The children have since implemented their idea, putting little bins around, creating signs, explaining to each class what goes in the bin and why, and then collecting the paper bits from all the rooms, including the school principal Janet Murphy’s office.
“That’s the really great part that kids as young as senior kindergarten are thinking really seriously about garbage,” says Cantley, who helped create an impressive plastic garden pot recycling program.
Honourable mention for sure goes to Toronto District Christian High School in Woodbridge. We wish we had another prize for their school-wide garbage collection and sorting system.
Also intriguing, but not exactly fitting contest criteria, were the Trash Talk rap poems submitted by Benita Hayes’ class at Weston Memorial Junior Public School: “We ain’t gonna leave this place like a dump. If we don’t help now the world is gonna go THUMP!” (We hope the students will perform and post them on YouTube.)
Some students submitted off-the-wall recycling ideas (cigarette butts turned into eyeglass frames, for example) and impressive renderings of robotic creations for sorting trash. Though fanciful, these suggestions contain nuggets of ideas that experts are actually pursuing. (A Chilean designer, for example, blends washed cigarette butt fibre and wool to produce yarn and clothing.)
So, kids, keep on imagining. And thanks for the more than 20 worthwhile entries to Trash Talk’s garbage challenge.
Trash Talk appears Saturdays in New in Homes and Condos. Send questions or comments to e_moorhouse@sympatico.ca
Read previous Trash Talks
- The scoop on poop
- Going
green in the garden
- Earning
EcoSchool status
- Garbage
issues are on their minds
- All
of that gum gives city workers something to chew on
- Recycling
your closet hang-ups
- Not
your average food processor
- A
green dream: three bin bathrooms
- Winter
composting
- Reusable
bag a lesson in stewardship
- Signs
of the times and what they mean
- Campaign
targets takeout trash
- Consider
coming clean in 2010
- Eco-paint
container isn't that green
- Stewardship
program to drive tire recycling
- Loft
reno represents extreme recycling
- Hitting
the dead mattress problem
- Modest
proposals for Waste Reduction Week
- Battery
recycling doesn't always make sense
- This
PET's a big problem
- Sorting
through the blue box conundrum
-
Got
the blue bin blues? Don't overstuff
- The
not-so-green side of gardening waste
- Overcoming the blips
of electronic waste
- Pet
food, aluminum
foil and another twist on caps
- Don't chuck it, use
it
- Don't
flip your lid over cap conundrum
- From
milk cartons to
toilet tissue
- Bin there? Hidden
radio frequency tags know all
-
Answers for all
those 'irritating garbage questions'