In November 2019 Frederick Banting a team of Banting students began their annual waste audit to see how they were recycling and composting compared to the amount of waste going to the landfill (garbage). This information is used to help us determine how we can reduce the amount of material going to landfills. Students weighed the compost, garbage, blue and black bins in each school areas and calculated the waste diversion rate. See sample pictures at the end of this report to see how we do it.
What is the diversion rate?
Diversion rate is the total percentage of recyclable materials that have avoided being put to garbage dumps, and instead are put through the recycle system where the materials can get reused. Last year in 2018-2019 Frederick Banting Alternative Program had a diversion rate of 82% compared to 99% based on our recycle, compost and garbage audit for this academic year. Here is our data chart of each area of the school audited for this academic year.
Banting Recycling and Garbage Audit November 2019:
2020 Diversion Rate equation: Total Waste Weight = Total Garbage Weight of 1 Day + Total Recycling Weight of 1 Day Diversion Rate = Total Recycling Weight of 1 Day / Total Waste Weight x 10 Total waste weight = 1174g + ((20400g + 1123050g + 39900g)/5) 1174g + (1183350g / 5) 1174g + 2366700g = 237844g Total weight of one day recycling = 237844g Diversion rate= (236670g / 237844g) 10 0.9950 10 = 99%
2019-2020 diversion rate = 99%
In 2018 the diversion rate was 92% then in 2019 it was 82%. Now in 2019-2020 the diversion rate is 99%. Working together in our school we have avoided putting recyclable items into garbage landfills.
Why is recycling important?
Recycling is important for the environment by using old and waste products and making them into new products. Since we are saving resources there's less trash in landfills, this reduces air and water pollution. It's a fact that 60% of garbage that ends up in landfills are recyclable. Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the world.
How do I start recycling?
Check out the infographic created by Banting Student and popsted to our blog! https://bantinggreen.blogspot.com/2019/06/recycling-at-banting.html
In addition view these tips on how to recycle from http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/recycle.html)
Recycling in and around the home can be easy when you know how. By thinking carefully about what products you buy at the supermarket and other places and how to recycle them is the first step towards efficient recycling.
Find ways of recycling different materials
Many materials can be recycled, such as paper, plastic, metal and glass. Other items such as furniture, electronic equipment, building material and vehicles can also be recycled but many people don’t often think about how they can be recycled. See the City of Ottawa web links below for ideas as well as consider putting out reusable items out at the Ottawa Giveaway Weekend in June, 2020. https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/garbage#give-away-weekend
Buy products that can be recycled
When shopping at the supermarket, buy products that can be recycled easily such as glass jars and tin cans. Bring your own shopping bags as well as produce bags. Avoid products that are over-wrapped. Contact the vendor and your government when you see ways to decrease plastic use in the store. Fast fashion is when fashion brands overstock stores to keep up with new trends but they are also quick to throw the old stuff away to make room for new collections. This mass clothing production requires a lot of resources and energy that depends on toxic dyes and chemicals that pollutes the environment. We have a Trader Location in the school in which staff, students and community members bring in gently used clothing items, books and other household items for “Trader Fred”. Anyone can take the items for re-use thereby reducing landfill waste. You may donate clothing to Salvation Army, Value Village, Shelters, and the City of Ottawa Welfare Offices where they can be taken by clients. We donate items not taken from Trader Fred to a City of Ottawa Welfare Office where they have a table for clients to take items. We are told that whatever we donate is taken immediately.
Buy products that have been made from recycled material. You can tell if a product is eco-friendly by looking at the label on the packaging. Avoiding buying hazardous material. It is difficult to recycle products that contain hazardous waste. Try to find safer alternatives to household cleaners and buy non-toxic products whenever possible. You can properly dispose of hazardous materials you do have by looking at the City of Ottawa website on how and where to dispose of hazardous waste. Sometimes you can find alternatives to hazardous materials for cleaning for example Queen of Green with the David Suzuki Foundation has a free online newsletter that gives lots of ideas for being more green including household cleaners. https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-green/
Recycle and compost bins
Make sure you have recycle and compost bins in your home, school and workplace. Keep them in an obvious place so you won’t forget to use it. Your local council should be able to provide you with a recycle bin that can be used for materials such as glass, paper, aluminium, plastic and compost. Compost liners can be made from flyers or newspapers. Banting Students and Staff did a training video with the Ottawa Citizen on how to make green bin liners. We make them at school with donated newspapers from members of one of our local churches. https://bantinggreen.blogspot.com/search?q=how+to+line+that+green+bin
In our locality, The City of Ottawa has a website with tips to help you start and how to reduce waste and specific sites to help you figure out what will go in your blue bin, black bin, compost and what is considered garbage. https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/waste-reduction-and-education
How to get your blue, black and green bin https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/recycling#get-blue-bin-black-bin-or-green-bin
What goes in your blue bin https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/recycling#what-goes-your-blue-bin
What goes in your black bin https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/recycling#what-goes-your-black-bin
What goes in your compost as well as leaf and yard waste https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/green-bin-and-leaf-and-yard-waste#what-goes-your-green-bin
What goes in your garbage https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/garbage
For ther non garbage items and what to do The City of Ottawa Site has recommendations on what to do with other items which are not garbage and can be reused https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-recycling/recycling#waste-explorer
Hazardous Waste Waste Explorer - if you are not sure about an item https://app06.ottawa.ca/cgi-bin/search/recycle/q.pl?q=&lang=en
What we have changed including this year to improve to reduce waste:
Two years ago Banting students created a petition to Tim Horton’s, Starbucks and McDonald’s to change the solf black plastic #6 lid to decomposable. This year Tim Horton’s has changed to a recyclable plastic #5 lid. Students had over 50,000 signatures! Another project last year was a petition to politicians to reduce pollution through human behavior https://bantinggreen.blogspot.com/2019/06/reducing-pollution-through-human.html
The result shortly after was an announcement by Prime Minister Trudeau that they planned the process to eliminate excess plastic use. Banting Students also submitted their ideas on the Ontario Government Consultation on Reducing Waste and Littering in Ontario in the spring of 2019. This year we have made more effort to have waste free food events in coordination with the local Community Bible Church (CBC). We now have sufficient cutlery (donated by a staff member that they obtained from second hand shops), have sufficient plates and use only decomposable materials that can be composted. Instead of drink boxes they provide juice in jugs which were also donated by a staff member. After our holiday event diner we had one small bag of garbage after feeding about 90 students and staff. At our Wellness day breakfast we had the same minimal amount of garbage created. In 2019 I wrote a petition to urge individuals, including fast food outlets, restaurants and any other location where drink straws are used or sold including food products manufactured such as drink boxes with excess plastic packaging including plastic wrapped plastic straws to please stop using plastic straws. Straws are one of the most common types of litter around the world and they can't even be recycled so it ends up in landfills polluting our planet. https://bantinggreen.blogspot.com/2019/11/this-is-my-petition-to-starbucks.html
What we at Banting can do better and continue to work on
We can still work on reducing plastic waste. My blog post above on using alternatives to plastic straws is a step in the right direction but more needs to be done. We have suggested making metal and bamboo straws available to students. We are working on reminding students and staff to rinse out any recyclable plastics with food waste before they go into the blue bin. Our weekly recycling announcements remind students and staff to do so before bringing their recycling down for final assessment, sorting and bringing out to the outdoor bins. We need to continue to advocate for change with the governments to reduce waste and littering making sure they follow through with their promises. We need to continue to monitor and make sure that paper with food waste and food waste goes to the compost and that fast food and coffee outlet hot drink lids are placed in the blue bin provided they are not soft black plastic #6. We need to continue sharing where-ever we go throughout our days what we have learned here at Banting about being advocates for the planet. There is no Planet B!
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| Weighing the black bin contents from one class |
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| Weighing the green bin contents from a washroom |
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| Weighing the classroom compost from one class using a Newton Scale |
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