The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to announce that St. John Catholic School has been selected by the City of Greater Sudbury to participate in a school-based recycling project. Prior to the launch of the pilot project, only paper and cardboard products were being recycled at the school. As a result of this new initiative, students are now able to recycle the same waste products as they do at home in one convenient blue box without the need to sort! Some of the new products students can recycle include: plastic sandwich bags, milk cartons, and juice boxes-something schools have a lot of!

Madame Raymond’s Grade 3/4 French Immersion class has taken on a leadership role in helping to organize and support the project. Students are responsible for collecting waste reduction data and publically charting the results in the school’s front entrance on a weekly basis. St. John Catholic School is hoping to reduce the amount of waste sent to the local landfill site by at least 50 percent through this new initiative.

The Grade 3/4 French Immersion class is also working to integrate the project into all aspects of the curriculum from Mathematics to Social Studies. Further, a Waste Reduction Committee organized by teachers and run by students has been created with the purpose of raising awareness about the importance of recycling amongst students and staff alike.

St. John Catholic School is the third SCDSB school to participate in the City of Greater Sudbury’s recycling “pilot project” joining sister schools, St. Paul Catholic School and St. Charles College who embarked upon this project in June 2007.