The County of Simcoe is pleased to recognize Foley Catholic School in Brechin with its 2014-2015 Learning & Living Green Organics Award. The County partners with local school boards on its Learning and Living Green program to educate students about proper waste disposal and encourage increased use of the County's organics green bin program, both in school and at home.
As part of its involvement in the program, Foley Catholic School diverted 14.47 kg of organics per student during the 2014/2015 school year the highest amount per student out of any participating school. On October 21st, County staff presented school staff and the student body with an award and an iPad to contribute to student learning.
"I want to congratulate students and school staff for improving your waste diversion habits and ultimately helping our environment," said Warden Gerry Marshall. "Our goal is to increase our diversion by implementing strategies that grow our green bin program while diverting materials away from landfills. It starts with educating our youth and I'm extremely thankful for our students, schools and school boards for supporting our innovative Learning & Living Green program."
Learning & Living Green is a unique program that provides education about recycling and organics collection to more than 100 local schools pairing the same programs for waste diversion in our homes to those in the classroom. This is a partnership program co-ordinated by the County through five local school boards.
The Learning & Living Green program was introduced in 2010. Since its implementation, approximately 2,500 tonnes of recyclables and organics have been collected from local schools, resulting in an increase in waste diversion from 37 per cent to approximately 80 per cent.
This past January, the County received the Minister of Environment's Award for Environmental Excellence for the Learning & Living Green Program, recognizing the program's capacity to foster knowledge, values and behaviour change through innovation, promotion and outreach.
"The staff and students of Foley Catholic School strongly support the Organics Composting Program," said Theresa Robertson, teacher and Eco School Lead, Foley Catholic School. "Since we started the program, the quantity of garbage in the school has greatly decreased. The program has helped to teach our students that they have a role in caring for the environment."
The County is committed to environmental leadership by investing in diversion. To that end it is working on development of two new facilities - an Organics Processing Facility (OPF) and Material Management Facility (MMF).
The OPF would provide the County with a facility where green bin materials could be processed locally and converted into other valuable products, such as compost or fertilizer, to support agricultural initiatives within the County. This facility would also reduce the need to haul material long distances for processing.
County staff (green shirts) present students and faculty at Foley Catholic School with the County of Simcoe's 2014-2015 Learning & Living Green Organics Award.
