Peel Schools celebrate Earth Day by keeping 2,000 kg of batteries out of landfills

Mississauga's Plum Tree Park Public School wins the Call2Recycle/Power of 10 Battery Challenge by collecting over 300 kg of batteries!

MISSISSAUGA, ON, April 22, 2016 /CNW/ - As Canada's national consumer battery stewardship organization, Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. partnered with Power of 10, an enthusiastic group of young battery ambassadors, to call on students from 20 schools in Mississauga and Brampton to recycle batteries and keep them away from Peel Region landfills.

Power of 10, led by Tony Li and Amanda Barron of Boswin Robotics Program, approached Call2Recycle Canada with the idea to launch a Battery Recycling Challenge among Peel schools. The friendly competition would determine which school could collect the most spent batteries during the Challenge. To make the contest more exciting, Power of 10, a Boswin Robotics First Lego League team, created elaborate battery mazes for the schools. Students marveled as they dropped their used batteries through the intriguing mazes and watched them fall into the Call2Recycle collection boxes. Power of 10 also set up a Contest website where schools could find more information about the contest.

The students took on the challenge with great gusto, intent on protecting the environment and helping to conserve our natural resources. Learning that recycled batteries are used to make a variety of items—from new batteries to stainless steel products—further motivated the students.

Thanks to collaboration by students, teachers and Power of 10, Over 2,000 kg of batteries was diverted from landfills. At the end of the competition, Plum Tree Park Public School in Mississauga emerged as the winner, collecting more than 300 kg of used batteries. Runners up were McKinnon Public School, Edenrose Public School and Sheridan Park Public School, which each collected more than 200 kg of batteries.

"Our school is so thrilled to have won this battery challenge", said Saba Khan, Principal of Plum Tree Park Public School. "I was amazed and proud at the way that our students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 embraced the idea of battery collection with such enthusiasm." Jayne Powell earned the Teacher Champion Award for believing in the program and facilitating the battery collection. The school hosted an award ceremony on Earth Day, April 22, 2016, with Gale Solomon-Henry, Superintendent of Education, Peel District School Board and Patricia Saito, Councillor, City of Mississauga, who presented a Congratulatory award on behalf of Mayor Bonnie Crombie.

"I would like to congratulate the students and staff of Plum Tree Park Public School for their commitment to protecting the environment," said the Councillor, Pat Saito. "I am grateful to the Power of 10 and Call2Recycle for raising awareness of the importance of battery recycling. Hopefully this can become an annual event and we can extend it to other schools too."

"We were delighted to assist Power of 10 to run a successful battery recycling program," said Delphine Lagourgue, Director, Call2Recycle, Central Canada. "It was a pleasure to work with these schools in the Peel region to raise awareness for battery recycling throughout the province."

Ontarians don't need a challenge event to protect the environment. Currently, almost 94% of Ontario residents live within 15 km of a Call2Recycle drop-off site. Residents can find their closest drop off location at call2recycle.ca.

Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. 
Call2Recycle Canada, Inc. (Call2Recycle®) is a premier product stewardship organization dedicated to minimizing the environmental impacts of products in the marketplace. Operating across Canada and the U.S., its marquee battery recycling program Call2Recycle® is the oldest and largest consumer battery stewardship program, collecting and recycling batteries for retailers, municipalities, businesses and consumers through its network of 8,000 collection sites in Canada. Since 1996, over 45 million kilograms (100 million pounds) of batteries and cellphones have been diverted from the solid waste stream in North America. Learn more at call2recycle.ca.

SOURCE Call2Recycle

Video with caption: "VIDEO: Plum Tree Park School keeps over 300 kg of batteries = 10,000 plums out of Mississauga landfills!". Video available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/cgi-bin/playback.cgi?file=20160422_C8725_VIDEO_EN_673171.mp4&posterurl=http%3a%2f%2fphotos.newswire.ca%2fimages%2f20160422_C8725_PHOTO_EN_673171.jpg&order=1&jdd=20160422&cnum=C8725

Sandra Abuwalla, Director, Marketing & Communications, Call2Recycle Canada, Inc., [email protected], [phone]