At Deer Island Community School, one of the top 5 schools in the Recycling Heroes in School program for the 2024-2025 school year, beverage container recycling isn’t just confined to the classroom; it extends to the entire community. This year, the program’s student ambassadors played a key role in an initiative that combines learning, leadership and environmental commitment.
Turning Ideas Into Action: An Exemplary Community Project
Motivated by a desire to help their school and raise money for school trips, students started managing the recycling of deposit-bearing beverage containers. Every week, they carefully sort the containers, organize the bags, and prepare the deliveries to the Charlotte County Can & Bottle redemption centre. Thanks to an agreement with a local business, they are able to get a truck to transport the bags to the mainland, facilitating logistics that would otherwise be complicated in rural areas.
But the project doesn’t stop there. Noting the lack of recycling infrastructure on the island, technology students designed and built a small shed to receive deposit-bearing materials, with the help of some funding from Encorp. The shed serves not only the school, but also the whole community, allowing people to drop off their containers at any time. As a result, bags don’t blow away in the wind, and kids don’t have to climb into garbage bins to get the containers!
Twice a month, students go out to sort the materials. Even in the middle of winter, they take their job seriously – sometimes in the bitter cold of January or February. The income generated by their efforts is reinvested in various educational initiatives.
Leadership, Action and Pride!
The school also organized a road clean-up activity, reinforcing the connection between recycling and civic responsibility. The ambassadors are proud to see a change in behaviour among their fellow students, who are throwing fewer containers in the garbage. Students who aren’t able to recycle at home are even now doing so at school.
This project offers young people a real leadership opportunity. They learn how to manage a system, raise awareness among their peers and take concrete action to improve their environment. The school hopes this initiative will continue for many years to come … for everyone’s benefit.
As the students say, “other schools should do the same. We’re helping our community, and they could be helping theirs as well.”
Your School Can Also Raise Money by Collecting Beverage Containers!
Deer Island Community School is just one of many schools participating in Encorp’s Recycling Heroes in School program, and yours could be part of the program, too! Collecting and returning deposit-bearing beverage containers is a fantastic way to raise extra funds for your school, and this program helps provide you with the supplies and support to make it easy.
Send us an application on our website to get your school started with beverage container recycling!
