Kimberley schools have been cleaning up at the BC Green Games in recent years. This year Marysville Elementary is one of 10 elementary schools in BC to win, earning the school a $1000 prize. This is the second year in a row that Marysville has won in the Green Games. Also from Kimberley, Lindsay Park Elementary won in 2010 and 2012.
“We should be very proud of our youth in Kimberley for making a difference,” said Susie Macdonald, CBEEN’s Wild Voices for Kids program coordinator. “Our teachers are making a difference in the lives of the population of our area by helping our students learn life-long skills and habits that have an impact on our environment. We should all be proud.”
This year Marysville Elementary continued the good work of their Plastic Police. But they wanted to show that the effort to reduce garbage goes on all year, not just for a contest, and also try to educate parents and the community at large how everyone can play a big role in reducing waste.
The goal is reducing garbage in the community, starting with school lunches. At the same time an effort was made to increase composting and recycling. The students set a goal to make lunches almost waste free by the seventh week of measuring.
Each classroom discussed ways to reduce garbage in lunches and it was decided to measure in inches how much garbage was thrown away by putting a tape on each classroom’s garbage can at the end of the day. Each class counted how many pieces of recycling were made each day and students recorded the growth of the compost pile.
At the end of seven weeks, garbage was reduced dramatically, recycling increased and compost remained consistent.