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27 · Friday, December 18, 2009 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com River Oaks Eco Team going for gold on green By Errigal Mcgauley, Pinoja Pirabaharan, Max Glidden GRADE 7, RIVER OAKS P.S. D id you know the food in New York City that is thrown into the garbage would feed the whole continent of Africa for a whole month. At River Oaks Public School, we have an Eco Club and we are proud that our school has achieved the level of a silver status Eco school for the past two years. This year we will be going for gold Eco School certification status. To reach this lofty goal, the Eco Club began a process to explore the possibility of bringing composting to classrooms. Eco Team members contacted Halton Region to help us start a compost program. On Nov. 20, John Watson, waste diversion education co-ordinator of Halton Region, came to River Oaks Public School to talk to our students about our new composting program. He brought with him enough green totes and bins for every classroom in the school. He provided an interesting and informative workshop about the dos and don'ts of composting and recycling. Some of the interesting things our students were told about included what kinds of plastic can go in the recycling containers, what materials can go in the com- IODE Opportunity Shop on the move The IODE Opportunity Shop, that for years has operated at 154 Kerr St. (at Rebecca Street), will be relocating in January. The shop will move to 432 Kerr St. All stock will be on sale until Dec. 19 and the shop will remain open until Christmas, but will then close until it reopens Jan. 11 at its new home. The IODE, Angela Bruce Chapter, has operated in Oakville for 76 years. Recycling is not new to the local group, which began collecting scrap metal for the war effort. The Opportunity Shop has over the years dressed students for job interviews, the needy who could use a break and the affluent looking for a bargain. The proceeds have gone back into the community and the club takes a special interest in projects related to medical/hospital; food programs; community services, scholarships and citizenship. Donations are made by members of the public. For more information, contact beatrixoak@gmail.com. post bin, and what happens to the materials after they get picked up. He even told us that some plastics are recycled into clothing. Mr. Watson's workshop taught our students about the importance of composting and recycling and because of composting efforts, the amount of waste going to landfills has considerably decreased. Following the presentation, Eco Club members visited classrooms to deliver the compost containers and to review collection routines. Once the new process has been in place for a few months we hope to reduce our daily garbage output to one bag. Did you know that in Canada 34 per cent of our waste is food? In addition to looking at composting on Friday, Nov. 27, Ben Stevenson, an environmental engineer from Toronto, visited River Oaks to speak to our Grade 5 students. He spoke about energy efficiency, which gave us design ideas for the energyefficient model houses we were constructing. Mr. Stevenson spoke about ways to save energy and how to conserve it. He also outlined why energy is important to us and to think about how we waste energy in our everyday life. He even told us one day we could put solar panels on our school to help reduce the amount of fossil fuel energy needed for heat production. Mr. Stevenson gave us several options on energy efficient ideas for our houses, and showed us how solar panels and plenty of different other energy-saving appliances work. We learned about solar power, wind power, waterpower, and even how planting coniferous trees on certain sides of our home can reduce energy. We were very appreciative that Ben Stevenson came to see us and tell us about all these amazing ways to save energy and how energy saving appliances work. The work of the Eco Club and the special presenters we have had at our school this year has definitely raised the environmental awareness at our school. We therefore encourage other schools to take up composting and investigating ideas to reduce energy because it is such a great thing for the environment, and it is an incredible learning experience.