‘Problematic’: Ontario school board removing garbage bins from classrooms

The Waterloo Region District School Board is removing garbage bins from inside classrooms and into the hallways in an effort to cut down on waste being produced in its schools.

Jeff Pelich, who is president of the ETFO in Waterloo Region, says the WRDSB recently issued a memo to administrators at schools announcing plans to remove the waste bins.

“So the board has decided to remove garbage bins from all classrooms in an effort, they have said, to lessen the impact on landfill sites and reduce the number of garbage receptacles, and also to improve efficiency,” he told Global News.

The union boss also noted the “efficiency” would likely also be looking to save money for a board that has had some budget issues in recent years.

The memo, a copy of which he shared with Global News, said the “initial goal was to reduce the number of receptacles, and by extension, garbage bag usage by 80 per cent.

“Classroom waste bins will be replaced with single, larger, bins placed in more common areas. Each site will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and we will only be placing waste bins where they are required.”

Pelich took issue with the goal of the memo, which was sent on behalf of facilities superintendent Chris Sager and senior facilities manager Barry Kingsley.

“At the end of the day, there is still going to likely be a similar amount of garbage, because unfortunately, there are some things that need to go in the garbage,” he said.

“And unless they’re willing to provide the staffing support for things like composting and further recycling, I just don’t see how this is going to change anything.”

The Waterloo ETFO head noted that this move was also likely to lead to other issues as well as the kids would need to leave the classroom to throw out their waste.

“So they would have to leave their physical classroom, walk out the door into another space to throw a dirty Kleenex at it,” Pelich said.

“And as we know, that would be time away from learning, away from the supervision of their teacher and problematic from our perspective.”

He said his union, which represents teachers at public schools in Waterloo Region, believes that the board should practise what it preaches.

“If it’s so important to make this goal and to reduce garbage in individual classrooms, maybe we need to only provide one garbage per department at the Ed. Centre and then hopefully they’ll recognize the challenges that we would face and reverse this this decision,” Pelich said.

Global News has reached out to the WRDSB for comment on the move but has not received a response.