EarthCARE's Activities at Greenbank

By Gary O'Brien, Team Leader, April 23, 2006

Our membership is growing and the student council is also actively involved in environmental activities. Member include Grade 7 and 8 students Divyajyoti, Biswal, Maria, Hanna, Meghan, Caitlin, Kaitlin, Jordyn, Eliza, Erica, Christopher, Natasa, Chelsea, Annalyssa, Alison, Jocelyn, Alexandra, Christine, Maxim, Dean, Ami, Arik, Linda, Thariska, Shirley, Nickola, Geoff, Haley, and William.

Upcoming activities will include a week of litterless lunch, battery collection during parent interviews. Students in Mme Organista and Mme Treitz classes are also full of enthusiasm and will propose other activities in the close future. Ideas for organizing a litterless lunch will be forthcoming, but certainly in the meantime, all students (and parents) are encouraged to reduce the use of items which go directly in the garbage can and to bring back home items which can be recycled: yogurt containers, plastic bottles, plastic containers, etc.

Another idea which came up was to organize a battery collection and, possibly, ink cartridges collection, on the evening and morning of interviews on December 1 and 2.

Other "cool" ideas to use at home:

• change your light bulbs to energy saving ones: this can be a saving of $20 per bulb a year
• do not use plastic bags if it is to carry a jug of milk or a few items from the corner store, and reuse them when go grocery shopping;
• reduce your printing of e-mails: this practice has resulted in a 40% increase of paper production. Ask your teacher if it is OK to use both sides of paper when printing an assignment. We often forget that paper can be used on both sides and throw it out in the recycling bin too rapidly.

For other ideas and links, go on the www.earthcarecanada.com site and click on the OCDSB logo. The more people get involved and change their habits little by little, the more impact we will have.