Students and staff at South Branch Elementary School took part in the Plastic Bag Grab Challenge. A total of 3,111 plastic bags were collected last week. The Canada-wide challenge is through a partnership with Walmart. The plastic bags are re-purposed to keep them out of the landfill.
The school’s ECO Team and Mrs. Mellaney’s grade 3 class took the lead on the challenge.
Principal Christie LaBrash says students are learning about environmental issues through the news. She says the kids are at an age where they’re taking that in, so the school has to feed off its students as well and their concerns about what’s happening.
Students from kindergarten to grade 6 participated. The bags were dropped off at Walmart on Monday. The challenge comes with a $1,000 grand prize for one school in each province/territory that embraces the reduce and reuse objectives.
LaBrash says the focus was not about winning. She says the goal was to look beyond that and consider if everyone participates, that’s a lot of plastic bags that won’t end up back in the environment.