A switchblade, "lots of vapes and substances," a car battery, an old computer, a locker door, a lawn chair and pillows are some of the items picked up by a group of conscientious Burnaby teens trying to keep their high school grounds free of garbage.
Moscrop Secondary School students Shahdad Shafiei and Isaac Hwang were at a school board meeting Tuesday to tell trustees about the work of the Clean School Collective.
Hwang said the group, which won $1,000 this year through the Climate Project Challenge (a partnership between SFU and the school district) was founded to address a problem they first noticed when they were in Grade 8.
Roaming the Moscrop fields, they encountered a lot of litter, Hwang said.
"We were seeing so much garbage and litter on the ground, and it broke our hearts," he told trustees.
This year, they implemented a simple solution: they founded a group to pick it up.
After starting with about five members, the Clean School Collective has grown to about 50 members in Grades 8 to 12 who volunteer regularly to pick up litter on the school grounds.
In its first year this year, the collective has removed 1,800 litres of garbage from around the school since September, according to the presentation.
The group's next goal is to pick up 3,500 litres by June 2025.
Since it's amassed so many volunteers, the collective also plans to branch out to the neighbourhood next to the school, especially to nearby businesses.
"There's a lot of trash there as well," Shafiei said.
Besides ridding the school of garbage, the group offers students a chance to get volunteer hours and to hang out with friends, according to the teens.
"We've kind of fostered a culture, a community," Shafiei said.
Shafiei and Hwang said the Clean School Collective has used the Climate Project Challenge grant to buy supplies the volunteers need, including more garbage pickers.
Trustees lauded the teens' initiative and their accomplishments since September.
As for any "potentially dangerous items" the teens might encounter, the district told the NOW the collective will continue to work with the school's administrators to make sure adults at the school deal with those.
"The students' work ethic and contributions to the environment are commendable, and the school will continue to support them," secretary-treasurer Ishver Khunguray said in an emailed statement.
Climate Conversations
Another Moscrop group that earned a Climate Project Challenge grant this year was the Moscrop Enviro Club, which put on a "Climate Conversations" event earlier this month.
The club invited a number of experienced climate advocates to the school’s library and encouraged participants to interact with them in a "human library" format.
Enviro Club member Luciana Brewer told trustees the event was like a miniature version of a environmental conference with a "much more relaxed vibe."
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