Students at E.J. James displaying new sorted recycling bins.

This year was a very busy one for us. We started off the year by encouraging students to bring in litterless lunches to try and reduce the amount of waste in our trash/recycling program. After a few months, regular reminders helped to keep the program running throughout the year. We also purchased special recycling containers for separating glass, plastic, paper/cardboard and trash. This made recycling much easier for the students involved.

We were able to achieve the Silver ECO School status this year because of our waste reduction and energy conservation work. We also adopted a local park and maintained it regularly through a cooperative program through the Town of Oakville. During one week at school, we encouraged staff and students to walk to school or car pool to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions­ and to stay fit!

The Enviro Club Bulletin Board at E.J. James.

Below is a list of the other projects we worked on:

• Adopted three endangered species from the WWF
• Worked with the SEEDS program and their bird tally
• Pitch-In and 20 Minute Program to clean up the community
• Battery & Ink recycling
• Waste and Energy consumption survey

Our Litterless Lunch program and our Cleanup programs were adopted by many of the local schools, so it made a larger impact on our community and helped to reduce our total waste production. Next year we hope to continue and expand our program to make Oakville green!

Bob Briehl
robertbriehl@yahoo.ca