Earlier this spring, the green committee at the Huntingdon Adult Education and Community Centre issued a zero-waste challenge to the two other adult and vocational centres in the New Frontiers School Board, as well as the board’s administrative office.
The schools collected aluminum cans and tabs, bread tags, batteries, bottle caps, pill bottles, and tin cans.
The results are in, and the students and staff at HAECC came out on top, winning the inaugural challenge and the exceptional trophy created by Studio Tolhurst from repurposed materials.
Of course, it is the environment that really wins, with just under 400 pounds of recyclables having been diverted from landfill.
The members of the green committee were blown away by the number of items collected and were especially pleased to donate bulging bags of everyday recyclables to the Genie in a Bottle organization.
The friendly competition aimed to educate school communities about actions that can easily contribute to environmental initiatives, while helping students in the social integration program learn new skills and competencies.
Green committee member Marie-Claire Charlebois says the goal is to extend the challenge to all NFSB schools and centres in the near future.