Bishop Carroll High School Goes Green with Environmental Council

Did you know that the amount of trash the average North American will throw out is equal to 600 times his or her weight in a lifetime? This means that an adult weighing 68 kg (or 150 pounds) will generate 40,825 kg (or about 90,000 pounds) of trash!

For some, this fact may be somewhat disturbing, but for Bishop Carroll High School’s newly established Environmental Council, it’s simply unacceptable. As a small group of dedicated students, E-CO (Environmental Council) knows it cannot change the world in a day, but prides itself on taking small steps towards a better earth.

E-CO founder Amanda Achtman describes one green initiative that has been implemented: “Members recently designed creative posters encouraging students to limit their use of paper towels in the washrooms after we noticed that many paper towels in the garbage had not actually been used.”

E-CO also publishes a weekly “Greenpiece” in the student news communicator. The “Greenpiece” is an environmental tip of the week to encourage students and staff to be more environmentally friendly. An example of a “Greenpiece” is : “Be conscientious of the waste that accumulates when you eat out. Ask for less packaging and see if you can limit your use of such things as plastic bags, plastic utensils or excessive napkins.”

What else does E-CO have up its sleeve? “A garbage audit is being planned,” says Amanda. “This will involve E-CO members taking a tally of how many garbage bags are filled in a single week by waste from students’ lunches. Then, we plan to launch a litterless lunch campaign and encourage students to bring lunches with little or no litter.”

E-CO member Julia MacGillivray consistently volunteers her time to help raise awareness about environmental issues. “I want to make a positive difference within Bishop Carroll and educate people about what they can do to have as little impact on the Earth as possible. The individual’s effort is at the core of making a school as green as possible,” says Julia. She adds, “As far as environmental conservation goes, the artist Robert Bateman once said: ‘The current thinking is that we can let the next generation pay for this. It’s not that simple. We are wiping out biodiversity, and extinction is the death of future possibilities.’”

Another fact: One pound of newspaper can be recycled to make six cereal boxes, six egg cartons or 2,000 sheets of writing paper. So think twice before you throw away this edition of Youthink, and instead, recycle!