The overwhelming recycling effort spearheaded last fall by the 90 students at Pakan Elementary and Junior High School are an outstanding example of a small, dedicated group making a big difference. Pakan School is located on Whitefish Lake First Nation #128, approximately two hours northeast of Edmonton in a small community of Goodfish Lake.
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Pakan School cheque presentation ceremony. From left to right: MT, Principal Laura Marchand, Rosalie Halfe, Colleen Pierce and Cherie Cohen, VP Communications and Marketing
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Last fall, they developed the SOS Program – Support Our School Beverage Container Recycling Program (SOS Program). By registering early in the MT School Beverage Container Recycling Program, they won a $1,000 early bird prize. This prize acted as a catalyst to get the students, teachers and the entire community collecting containers.
The two teachers who coordinated the program initiated a token system and monthly draws. Students who brought in containers received tokens that could be used to purchase items at the school canteen. When the students, teachers, and parents realized that it was possible to win the provincial contest, everyone started asking family, neighbours and businesses to donate beverage containers to the SOS Program.
All recyclable empties were processed through the Lac La Biche bottle depot, and the community response was overwhelming. Pakan School recycled an astonishing 50,497 containers during the 2009 – 2010 school year. As a result, they won $5,000 in the "Schools with 500 or Less Students" category. Refunded deposits for the 2009 – 2010 school year totalled $6,600. All the funds were used for school programming and field trips.
Pakan School teacher Colleen Pierce says they were able to reach this goal by involving the entire community. "The MT program at Pakan School has had a big impact on the community," says Pierce. "It is great to see the students encouraging parents and grandparents to recycle." Many of the students recognize the recycling logo and want to recycle other containers as well, which Pierce says is "another opportunity to Respect Mother Earth and reflects traditional Cree values."
Coordinating teachers have scheduled students who drain, sort and count containers. The students who work in the SOS room have their names entered in monthly draws for items or gift certificates for the school's Book Fair. All the names are also entered into a draw at the end of the year for an iPad.
Since 2004, the MT School Beverage Container Recycling Program has collected and diverted more than 22 million beverage containers from Alberta landfills.
For more details on the school program visit EveryEmptyCounts.ca
