How candy wrappers got N.L. students talking about recycling plastic
Students across the province collected empty wrappers for CBC recycling campaign
Waves of Change is a CBC series exploring the single-use plastic we're discarding, and why we need to clean up our act. You can be part of the community discussion by joining our Facebook group.
Students at Corner Brook Intermediate say spending a month collecting their snack wrappers for a CBC recycling campaign has left a lasting impression about the lifecycle of their waste.
"We don't think about how our plastics could possibly be recycled, so we just throw them out," Grade 9 student Katelyn Howell said about her pre-Halloween mindset. "Now that I know where it ends up, it definitely [bothers me]."
Howell and her classmates saved their candy wrappers — eventually amounting to six garbage bags, stuffed full — as part of a recycling campaign organized by CBC stations in Gander, Corner Brook and Happy Valley-Goose Bay for the month following Halloween.
Anyone was welcome to drop off snack wrappers at the stations, which after Nov. 30 will be sent to Terracycle, a company repurposing hard-to-recycle plastics.
'Why do we do this?'
The CBI students begin learning about ocean pollution in Grade 8, and plastics in Grade 9, but the wrappers piling up in their classrooms gave students a startling visual to hammer home the problem of plastic waste.
"It was a conversation piece with them, and they engaged in that, a whole lot," said science teacher Christine Adey.
"When I was little I always loved the idea of becoming a marine biologist," said Grade 9 student Madison Rubia.
"When we started learning about the pollution in oceans and what it's doing to the marine ecosystem, eventually I just [said] — why do we do this?"
It started a conversation which really needs to happen.- Christine Adey
Those big questions have also sparked conversations about what the school can do beyond one recycling campaign to battle single use plastics.
"The students now are questioning a lot of our recycling, or lack of," said Adey.
"Our students actually want to bring some recycling programs into our school. So I think it started a conversation which really needs to happen."
Little kids, big ideas
Several schools in Labrador also dove into the recycling challenge. The 26 students at St. Lewis Academy gathered hundreds of wrappers, according to teacher April Poole.
"It gets them into that mindset, that they can do something to make a difference," she told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
"Because we're on the coast here, we don't have a whole lot of access to recycling opportunities. I really believe people here would recycle more, if we had more of an opportunity to do so."
Even the youngest students at Peacock Primary School in Happy Valley-Goose Bay have chipped in to the campaign, collecting hundreds of wrappers.
"It's helping the environment, and the community," said Grade 1 student Joshua Crocker.
Join the discussion on the CBC Waves of Change Facebook group, or email us: wavesofchange@cbc.ca.
With files from Newfoundland Morning and Labrador Morning