Sunningdale Public School in Oakville has trashed most of its garbage cans for composting bins and extra blue boxes to teach students how to limit their ecological footprint.

The school has removed garbage cans from all but two arts and science clasrroms. Instead, the school has placed two Halton Region blue boxes and one composting GreenCart bin in each classroom. There are also four other trash cans strategically located in the school utility rooms for example, to ensure traditional waste has a place to go.

The goal is to get students thinking about the waste they produce, with recycling boxes and composting bins being the first two spots to consider tossing waste. Students are learning how they can minimize their garbage generation and carbon footprint. By doing what they can to see materials are re-used or made into something new, students are putting less stress on the planet.

Caretaker Bill Gatopoulos spearheaded the new program. He stresses the program wouldn’t work if not for the support of staff and students. The uptake by staff and students has been gratifying, he said. Gatopoulos explained the school’s eco team members help empty the blue boxes three times a week and green bins twice a week.

“The kids do a great job,” he says, adding it has made him feel even better about his workplace.

An important aspect of the no-trash can philosophy is the tie in to everyday learning, says Sunningdale Principal Robert Eatough.

“While our recycling/green cart program has obvious environmental benefits, it has also had significant educational ones as well. The recycling/green cart programs provide meaningful and engaging 'real-life' opportunities for students to learn about human impact on our environment, at the local level. As an eco-school, during the course of the year, each teacher must plan lessons that have clear connections to learning in, about or for the environment.”

Students will also conduct weekly "Sort it Out" and "Energy Conservation" walkabouts, he added. Students check how well the class has sorted recyclable and if energy-saving techniques are being utilized, like lights being turned off when not in use.

Grade 7 students Couby, Mila and Amelia are proud to be a part of a limited-trash can school and helping hands in the blue and green bin collection program. They say students will develop good habits by learning to compost food and recycle items, as these green efforts help extend the life of landfill sites.

“People will bring fewer things with wrappers that can’t be recycled,” Couby says, noting students will bring reusable containers instead. 

An important benefit that can’t be overlooked, Gatopoulos points out, is the cost savings. It costs money to have Halton Region pick up garbage while green and blue bin pick up is free. Sunningdale has reduced its garbage pick ups from twice a week to twice a month due to this initiative.

Gatopoulos crunched the numbers and has found the school has saved $3,600 in pick up costs.

The idea for the no trash can program found its infancy three years ago during Gatopoulos’s time as caretaker at the New Street Education Centre. Along with Justin Keethaponkalan, the two got thinking about ways to reduce the amount of garbage filling trash cans. They decided to reduce the number of garbage cans on the first and second floor offices since most of the waste generated was loose paper. That left blue boxes as the first destination for waste.

When Gatopoulos became caretaker at Sunningdale in 2009, he wanted to bring the same waste-reduction philosophy and get the students involved to make it work. He made a presentation to school administrators and the parent council and quickly won support. The program has never looked back, he said, and that’s largely because students are behind it.

“We only have one planet,” he says. “If we can teach a few people to change their habits, then we’ve won a small battle and that is important to me.”

Principal Eatough says the no-trash can initiative helps students to be leaders to the broader community.

“We're extremely proud of the recycling/green cart program and the leadership role of the students in ensuring it is a success. As leaders in our communities, it is important for schools to demonstrate that we can all make a significant difference for our environment if we all work together.”