{"id":14076,"date":"2016-04-27T11:53:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14076"},"modified":"2016-04-27T11:53:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:53:39","slug":"dont-overlook-milk-bags-say-lester-bs-eco-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/dont-overlook-milk-bags-say-lester-bs-eco-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t overlook milk bags, say Lester B’s Eco students"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chances are over the course of the last week, you probably threw out a milk bag or two.<\/p>\n

But, students at Lester B. Pearson Public School urge you to give the humble milk bag a second look and consider the possibilities before tossing the next one in the trash.<\/p>\n

Members of the school\u2019s Eco Club are hard at work cutting, tying and weaving what is usually just one man\u2019s trash and using handmade looms to create treasures for third world countries. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making mattresses out of milk bags to send to third world countries because some countries don\u2019t have anything to sleep on and they are sleeping on the ground right now,\u201d says Grade 5 student Toni Adebayl. \u201cBy making these mattresses, we are helping them and helping the environment by recycling.<\/p>\n

A key member of Lester B\u2019s Eco Club is Evan Lehrvass. A Grade 7 student, he saw the school\u2019s Eco Club dwindle in membership over time to the point where it simply fizzled out. Working with teachers, and drafting in his fellow Grade 7 student Curtis Maier, they set about reconstituting the club to make an impact on the world around them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very important to have an Eco Club because this is a big building and a lot of trash is thrown out,\u201d explains Curtis. \u201cWe try and help reduce the trash.\u201d<\/p>\n

When teacher, and club facilitator, Wendy Dicker saw a video on an initiative with people cutting up milk bags to weave them into mats and other useful products, it was a concept the Eco Club jumped on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we should do that too because milk bags are a big part of waste and they can\u2019t be recycled,\u201d says Evan. \u201cWe thought we could help reduce waste and help people in need if we did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Alexandra Mumford, Grade 3: \u201cSome people think it doesn\u2019t really matter that the milk bags stay in landfills for over 20 years.\u201d
\nThis is a message Ms. Dicker has tried to instill in Eco Club members. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, a couple of the girls came to me with the idea of milk mats and collecting milk bags,\u201d explains Ms. Dicker. \u201cWe collected them only, but this year I wanted to take it a step further and we created the looms. We had a parent create the large looms and some of the kids made the smaller looms with my assistance. Now, we collect the bags, cut the bags, loop the bags and loom the bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

When mats and mattresses are finished, Ms. Dicker bundles them up and takes them to Milk Bags Unlimited in Kleinburg where they are distributed to the developing world. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are great for the environment, they are waterproof and they last for 20 years,\u201d she says. \u201cEvan is very passionate about the environment and we knew these milk bags would stay in landfills for many, many years. Given that there is another purpose for them, why not put them to good use?\u201d
\nAt the end of the day, in addition to making a worthy contribution to those in need, this is all about awareness, Ms. Dicker adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [pitched this] at our Character Matters assembly so we educated the entire school in what we were doing. A lot of the kids just brought the milk bags in and didn\u2019t know what they were for. Their awareness is getting better because of initiatives like this. I think the kids really understand that these will stay [in landfills] for many, many years, collecting in a dump when they can be put to good use. I truly believe it increases the level of consciousness to think twice about what you\u2019re going to use and what you\u2019re going to put in the garbage rather than the Blue Box or Green Bin.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, let\u2019s have Toni sum it up:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think the Club is going to be boring and we\u2019re going to go from class to class checking garbage, but if you have something like this and you are doing it for a good cause, it is really fun and also really exciting. Don\u2019t overlook milk bags!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chances are over the course of the last week, you probably threw out a milk bag or two.<\/p>\n

But, students at Lester B. Pearson Public School urge you to give the humble milk bag a second look and consider the possibilities before tossing the next one in the trash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-28-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3F2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 20:30:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}