Tec Voc takes out the trash

Technical Vocational High School refuses to put up with refuse. 

Tec Voc celebrated Earth Day with a neighbourhood cleanup on April 22. Presented by Tec Voc’s Fair Trade and Sustainability committee, the event saw over 100 students and staff picking up litter on the school grounds and surrounding streets. 

“We’ll be doing the field and the front of the school and then going to Downing and Wall streets,” said Bunny Davis-Holstein, a Grade 11 student and one of the event organizers.

“Everyone will get gloves and a garbage bag. Of course, any unsafe, hazardous materials we’ll pickup with garbage tongs and then dispose of.”

Prior to picking up trash, Davis-Holstein and her fellow Fair Trade and Sustainability committee members acted as event hosts, handing out gloves and garbage bags and assigning students and staff to eight different areas to wipe out waste.  

“It’s a big space and there’s lots to clean up,” said Kathleen Mira, an applied commerce and technology teacher at Tec Voc and a Fair Trade and Sustainability committee adviser. 

“We didn’t just want to stay on the school property. We wanted to reach out into the community, so people could see the students. It’s a good and safe way to build school and community involvement.”

Take Pride Winnipeg provided the gloves and garbage bags for the event. Also, Crystal Sound DJ service played music to motivate the students in their cleanup efforts.

Mira said there’s plans to make the Earth Day community cleanup an annual event. Also, on April 22 the school received bins for its new composting program.

“We're going to start in our cafeteria, because we’re a big food producer,” Mira said. “We’re going to start composting all the scraps from food preparation. Eventually we want to get the program into classrooms and other areas of the school.”

“Composting is just the start of transforming our cafeteria into a cool sustainability centre. We’re trying to go zero waste eventually. In terms of serving, all of our kitchen products are compostable already and we’ve been doing that for well over a year.”