Halloween is far behind us, but the collection of packages of sunk candy continues at LaRocque School. Teacher Dominique Hébert has established a partnership with the company Avrac A'davrac in order to pick up these papers which cannot be recovered.
The initiative had caused a lot of talk in October: the co-founder of Effect PH, Hélène Boissonneault, had collected in some forty drop-off points all these types of packaging (chocolate bars, chips, etc.) by handing them over to TerraCycle , a company which gives a second life to this type of waste.
Each class has its basket and a student is responsible for emptying it. "The children made video capsules to find out what to put in the box," says the teacher, who took care of the project at Halloween.
The teacher, who had difficulty finding a budget for the project, approached various organizations before Avrac A'davrac agreed to sponsor the school box. “What we said to each other is that we are training citizens, we want them to be eco-responsible. We want to make them aware of the environment, to pay attention to the planet, because we don't have planet B! "
The children wrote humorous scenarios for the broadcasting of the capsules.
Dominique Robert advocates for a better integration of environmental protection in schools. “The ecological aspect is up to our motivations. I think schools have to rethink that, ”she illustrates, giving the example of a budget for ecological initiatives. This place of the environment is all the more important as the ecological footprint of schools is large, she underlines by adding that certain initiatives should extend to all schools. "Is it up to us to do it?" Yes, as citizens, but how can we make institutions responsible so that it becomes collective and community action? "
The presence of collection boxes on Halloween had the effect of raising awareness among the children, who had not yet wondered about the fate of their candy, chocolate or other packaging.
"I never looked if we could put them in recycling," says Iona Gendron.
Owner of Avrac A'davrac, François Vincent notes that the initiative launched during Halloween week has indeed made people aware of what is happening with their packaging. “It gives a visual when you see tons and tons of garbage bags. It’s tangible. It's a huge amount of plastic, it makes you aware of that ... "However, we must pay attention to the opposite effect, notes Mr. Vincent, recalling that it is not because we can now recycle these packaging that we must encourage their consumption, the objective being to reduce at the source. Mr. Vincent believes that it is through laws and regulations that things can change.
The grocery store now offers its customers the possibility of paying $ 20 per year to dispose of their non-recyclable packaging in order to send it to Terracycle.
Dominique Hébert specifies that other projects are underway. It wishes to install three-way bins, to recover paper and cardboard, plastic and non-recoverable packaging intended for TerraCycle. "We are going to apply for financial assistance from the School Board Foundation," she said, stressing the importance of getting children used to sorting materials.