January 13, 2009

Audit Aims to Produce Cost-effective, Eco-friendly School District

KELOWNA, BC: With 45 sites and close to 23,000 students and staff, School District No. 23 creates a ‘mountain’ of garbage and compostable or recyclable materials each day.  The challenge is finding cost-effective and environmentally-friendly ways to deal with these vast quantities of materials.  On Wednesday, Jan. 14, from 12:15 pm to 2:30 pm, GreenStep, an environmental consulting company, will conduct a waste audit with the help of students at Peter Greer Elementary, who will don safety gear to sort and measure a morning’s worth of garbage.

“The waste audit at Peter Greer is a snapshot of what’s happening in our District,” says Randy Wickenheiser, Custodial Supervisor at the District.  “We hope that it will help us find solutions to help us meet our goal of being a leader in composting and recycling.  Currently, we do our best to recycle paper, glass, metal, and plastic.  We even collect copper and lumber when we renovate a building.  But we still find that many items that are recyclable end up in the garbage.  We also spend substantial amounts of money transporting materials to the landfill and various recycling centres.”

“As part of the audit, I expect GreenStep will have suggestions about logistics.  Maybe we need more bins or a better system at schools to collect and separate materials.  Some items like copper and aluminum have value that can help offset our labour and transportation costs.  We want to ensure we are capturing all of those materials.  GreenStep might suggest on-site composting for grass clippings, leaves, and fruit and vegetable scraps from children’s lunches.  We have been looking into the possibility of large composters like the one used at Trinity University.”

By approaching waste management with eco-awareness, Randy is finding some old habits can be adjusted to reduce the cost to the District and the environment.  One example originates in school woodshops.  “A large amount of sawdust is created in woodshops and currently it is bagged and thrown away.   Lindsay Eason and Angela Reid have suggested we look at options for composting.”

“I think we can do better and we owe it to our children.  If we work on this as a community, particularly with the help of the City, the health authority and the college, I think change will happen a lot faster.  I’m looking forward to seeing what comes from Wednesday’s waste audit.”

Approved by the Superintendent on January 13, 2008

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For comments, please contact:

Grant Davidson, Operations Manager, (250) 491-4000

Randy Wickenheiser, Custodial Supervisor, (250) 491-4025

Mike Roberts, Superintendent of Schools (250) 860-8888

For background information: please contact Lisa Harrison lharriso@sd23.bc.ca or 470-3284.