Everyone’s an RRFB winner

Students do their part with waste-handling messages

BY BRENT FOX

Kings County Register

Kings County students did well in the Region 5 categories of the 2007 Resource Recovery Fund Board (RRFB) Nova Scotia Recycles Contest. One was the provincial winner in her category.

Winners, runners-up, their families and school officials attended the Region 5 - Kings and Annapolis counties and Hantsport - awards ceremony in Kingston Feb. 21. Province-wide, prizes valued at more than $40,000 were presented to students and schools.

Courtney Turner of New Minas Elementary is the provincial winner in the Grades 4/ 6 cloth bag logo design. The runners-up include Michelle Hiltz, Kings County Academy; and Sarah Kinsman, Somerset.

Elizabeth Fox of Northeast Kings Education Centre won the Grade 12 essay competition, with Liam Coates of Horton the runner-up.

West Kings students Christa Skinner, Amber Smith and Krista MacDonald won the Grade 10/ 11 media campaign contest for their video on recycling. Cambridge student Loren Condi won the Grade 2/ 3 bookmark design competition.

Central Kings’ Kelsey Brydon and Justin Stoddard of NKEC were runners-up in the Grade 7/ 9 magazine advertisement category.

Port Williams teacher Terri Bowlby’s class won the Primary/ Grade 1 colouring contest. Susan Rendell’s Cambridge school class was runner-up.

Lot to celebrate

RRFB CEO Bill Ring noted, “Nova Scotians clearly have a lot to celebrate.”

The province is a leader in recycling, producing 50 per cent less garbage per capita than the Canadian average. One hundred per cent of Nova Scotia households have access to recycling, and 80 per cent are composting capable.

In recent years, the province has gone from 100 dumps to seven second-generation landfill operations. A new capability is the electronic recycling program, with 33 drop-off points across the province.

One of the successful programs is driven by thirst, Ring noted: the drink container return program. The program has recovered 268 million containers in the past year - 2.6 billion since 1996. There is also Boomerang paint made from recycled paint, and officials are seeking more possibilities for tire recycling.

The participants at the event were entertained - and educated - by Valley magician Al Bernard, whose magic act included a number of unique ways to recycle or make material disappear.