SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Grade 7/8 students at Range Lake North school have become recycling ambassadors to younger youth as part of a new program at their school.

Grade 7 and 8 students Memphis Silke, left, Jayden Morrison, Justin Vollenweider, Diya Al Hajjy, Abdalla Gassim-Elsead, Liam But and Francis Friesen pose for a photo with Ecology North education program manager Rose-Marie Jackson and City of Yellowknife sustainability co-ordinator Chris Vaughn after a presentation about how to compost and recycle at Range Lake North school on Monday morning. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo

On Monday morning, the class heard a presentation from Ecology North and the City of Yellowknife on the composting and recycling process, and then learned how to develop their message and make posters and short classroom presentations to other students in the school.

"It's a good chance for the class to be leaders and take on a bit of community service," said Mike Mansfield, a teacher at the school. "This class is going to go to all the different classes in the school and do a small presentation to teach them about composting, the importance of it and how to do it correctly so the school gets off on the right start with the program."

The students will also be in charge of collecting organic bins and small kitchen catchers from the classrooms and ensuring the process goes smoothly, he added.

Grade 8 student Liam But said he is excited about the program.

"It's good so we don't have a planet with a big heap of garbage all over it," he said.

Range Lake North school received funding from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which was used to buy the organic bins and small kitchen catchers, said administrative assistant Pat Thagard, who organized the program at the school. "We want to reduce the amount of cardboard and organics going into the dumpster as a way to make our school even greener and encourage kids to keep our environment green," she said.

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