Rothesay High School is one of many schools in New Brunswick participating in Encorp’s Recycling Heroes in School program – a recycling program aimed at helping schools in the province recycle their deposit-bearing beverage containers. Their dedication and effort throughout the 2023-2024 school year made them one of the top 5 performing schools in the program! Their success is a testament to the students’ commitment and the innovative strategies they’ve implemented to make recycling a part of everyday school life.
Whether it’s inside the school or out in the community, Rothesay High School students have been leveraging beverage container recycling to invest in school teams and student-led projects for several years. Students in Essential Skills and Leadership classes managed to raise funds for school programs through beverage container recycling. The Essential Skills students made sure that the beverage containers used within the school got recycled, while Leadership students focused on encouraging recycling within the community by holding regular bottle drives. Together, Rothesay High School’s Recycling Heroes recycled nearly 128,000 containers!
A Closer Look at In-School Recycling
Inside the school, recycling bins are placed in every classroom and in the main hallways, creating a school environment where beverage container recycling is easily accessible. Students put up educational posters provided by Encorp to show their peers which beverage containers are redeemable at redemption centres, so it’s easy to identify which items go in the beverage container recycling bins, and which items go in the other recycling and garbage bins.
The students in Essential Skills help to monitor the bins, prepare containers to be returned to a redemption centre, store the collected beverage containers, and regularly clean the bins. After the students collect and prepare the containers, they put them in storage until there’s enough to go to their local redemption centre. Thanks to all the students’ efforts, Rothesay High School won an outdoor storage shed as a reward for being one of the top five schools in Encorp’s Recycling Heroes in School program, giving them a secure and convenient location for storing their collected beverage containers.
Once enough containers are collected, they’re ready to be returned to a redemption centre! For Rothesay High School, getting their containers to a redemption centre is easy, as their local redemption centre, Golden Mile Redemption Centre, picks up their containers for them. Having the redemption centre work with the school this way removes a barrier to recycling, making it easier for the students and community to ensure their beverage containers don’t end up in the trash.
Community Participation Led By Students
Rothesay High School doesn’t stop at just collecting the containers used in the school. The Leadership students also work in teams to promote monthly bottle drives to get the community involved and raise more money. Each month, a different club or team is selected to receive the deposit refunds from the bottle drive, and the Leadership students work to raise money for that group. The students work to promote the bottle drive and organize dates and times when members of the community can drop off their bottles. They also organize collection days where they’ll go door-to-door in the community collecting containers to make sure none get left behind.
When it comes to promoting their bottle drives, the Rothesay High School students have taken the initiative to use social media to connect with their peers and the broader community alike. They use social media to share about upcoming bottle drive dates, the teams or groups that will benefit from the collected refunds, and how to prepare and drop off refundable containers. Using social media this way ensures the community is kept in the loop, making it easier for them to donate their containers to the school.
Supporting Student Programs and Initiatives Through Recycling Efforts
The funds from the school’s beverage container recycling program go toward the Essential Skills program’s Capstone Projects, which are student-led legacy projects, while the Leadership students work directly with teams and school groups on financing needs that get funded by the bottle drives.
For the Capstone Projects, students identify a need at their school and work to implement a project idea to improve their school community. Projects come in all shapes and sizes and can include things like installing benches around the school or creating a community garden.
Thanks to the bottle drives, students, faculty, alumni, and the community can see that their returned containers were turned into new sporting equipment, tournament fees, and more for the various student groups at the school.
As part of the Recycling Heroes in School program, the school was also eligible for a stipend from Encorp. Rothesay High School received two installments of $150 in September and January. This stipend was used to purchase extra tools for the recycling program, such as gloves and recycling bags. The remaining funds were put towards fun incentives and rewards for the students, sometimes in the form of pizza or snacks as a thank you to the students for running the program.
Keys to Recycling Success
Rothesay students attribute the success of the program to the ease of access to recycling. Having a recycling bin in every classroom just makes it easy to recycle. The Essential Skills teacher also noted that leveraging events and activities at the school can make a huge difference. For example, during a big sporting event or an event in the auditorium, they moved the recycling bins around so more were located inside and outside of the entrances, in key areas where people are passing through. This ensures that recycling is readily accessible to students, teachers, and visitors.
Students have said that promotion within the school, including posters and signage, as well as communicating where funds go, helps to make sure that more beverage containers are captured in the recycling bins, instead of going to the garbage.
Consistency is also key. Rothesay High School has been building on their recycling program for many years now – and joining Encorp’s Recycling Heroes in School program when it launched has helped them strengthen their recycling efforts. Community members donate year after year, saving beverage containers in anticipation of a collection date that works for them or a cause they care about, knowing that students will be collecting at school or going door-to-door in their community.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Recyclers
Thanks to the support within the school and the broader community, students get to experience the direct impact of the benefits of recycling their beverage containers through the resulting investment in their projects and school activities. Encorp is proud to support Rothesay High School through its Recycling Heroes in School program as they continue to inspire the next generation of recyclers year after year!
If your school isn’t part of Encorp’s Recycling Heroes in School program but you would like it to be, you can find all the information about the program along with an application form on our school program page.
