Pick Up the Poo!

2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Benjamin Gresty and Jaxon Lalonde are enrolled in the Eco-Justice environmental and adventure program at St. Edward School. Their proposal for the Caring for our Watersheds competition looked at the problems to the river and surrounding area caused by the failure of people to pick up after their pets. Chances are, if you are a dog owner, you have done the dirty deed of not cleaning up after your dog once or twice. Many people think this is not a big deal. Some even feel that dog waste can act as another kind of fertilizer. This is not the case! When dog waste washes into our local water ways it has negative effects for our South Saskatchewan River Watershed.

When dog owners don’t clean up their dog’s poop, it Student photo - pick up the poo student action project can leach into soil and with it, harmful disease causing micro-organisms like round worms, E. Coli and Giardia that can live in dog feces. This puts children who play outside and adults who garden at risk of these infectious organisms. If dog waste is washed into the storm drains it ends up in lakes, rivers, streams or marine water. People can accidentally swallow its bacteria and other disease-causing organisms while swimming or playing in the water. It can even contaminate ground water!

Dog feces contains nutrients like phosphates and nitrogen that encourage the growth of algae and aquatic plants and is also known to carry terrible diseases such as Whipworm, Hookworm, Tapeworm, Parvovirus, Beaver Fever, Salmonella, and E.coli. Said nutrients and pollutants have caused a major algae growth and pollution problem in Lake Winnipeg, giving it the title of 2013’s most threatened lake.

Jaxon and Benjamin decided to clean up dog feces in a local park and hand out bags to dog owners to raise awareness about how dog poop can affect our watershed

To further spread the information about the problems of dog waste, the students started a “poopagenda” poster campaign in off-leash parks, at bus stops and on lampposts. They have also started working with the City of Saskatoon to have permanent signs installed to educate the public about the potential harm caused by unscooped waste. Picking up the (dog) poo is one small and simple step to a much cleaner watershed!

Bag it! Trash it!

2013 Brighton, Ontario, Canada

Tyler Brown, a grade 9 student from East Northumberland Secondary School won first place for his idea called Bag it! Trash it! Tyler identified that dog waste that is left on the ground by pet owners throughout the watershed is a problem with an easy solution. He identified various environmental concerns such as contamination of local water systems as well as health concerns from diseased dog feces

Tyler proposed installing dog waste dispensers with biodegradable bags in convenient public locations throughout the watershed to encourage dog owners to pick up dog waste and dispose of it in an environmentally friendly manner.

The uptake of Tyler’s solution has been tremendous throughout the Lower Trent Region Watershed with a total of 18 dog waste dispensers to be installed as a result of Tyler’s idea. From May 2013 to August 2013, 14 dog waste dispensers were installed in high canine areas in the towns of Colborne, Brighton (including two Conservation Areas; Proctor Park and Goodrich-Loomis) and Frankford. In the fall of 2013 another eight dog waste dispensers were installed in Presqu’ile Provincial Park.

Tyler’s Caring for Our Watershed idea has had a positive impact for the health of the Lower Trent Watershed and the local communities.

“Green” Education for Life

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project emphasizes the early teaching of environment care to kindergarten students. It aims to teach the students about nature and simple ways to take care of it. One example is by making vegetable gardens that are built with disposable materials. This project also implements puppet shows and plays to captivate students while also creating awareness.

CNC assisted in the project by putting the students in contact with two plastic artists. These artists helped the students create a “square garden” with puppets for the puppet shows/plays and an “owl” that illustrates different images of birds and trees.

Locating Cesspools to Improve the Quality of Water

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project proposes a solution to a common problem in the urban areas surrounding the watershed. The problem in these areas is that a high percentage of new homes are built without access to sewage systems or central running water. Instead, every new house makes its own cesspool and well to get water.

Lack of knowledge about the location of individual cesspool has lead to many water intakes being located too close to the cesspools. A minimum distance between the cesspools of the neighbouring houses is recommended, meaning this is currently a health hazard to many in this area.

The project proposes a simple solution: make a public database of the location of the cesspools with the help of the community and the town hall. The project will use GPS to make the data public, and easily accessible. It will be launched using a geospatial database built by one of the winning projects of CFW 2012. (See Database of the Good Things, 2012).

Stream Cleanup and Art Project

2012 Arlington, Virginia, USA

After visiting Four Mile Run, Swanson Middle School sixth graders decided they wanted to address the problem of trash evident in and around the stream. Beyond just picking it up for proper disposal, the students wanted to reach the community and educate others on how trash, particularly plastic, negatively impacts aquatic life.

After conducting a litter clean-up at Bluemont Park and nearby streets, the students used the material they collected to make “trashworks” artwork to raise awareness, arranging with the school to display these works at the main office entrance. Their project was a finalist in the Caring for Our Watershed contest, and required no funding to implement.

Pet Waste Disposal Project

2012 Arlington, Virginia, USA

Sixth graders at Kenmore Middle School aimed to address bacterial contamination in Four Mile Run by repurposing used plastic bags for pet waste disposal at local dog parks. Collecting bags from the school community and neighbors, they were able to donate roughly 10,000 gabs to Arlington Dogs for this purpose.

Reusable bags

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This proposal was to provide a solution to the massive use of plastic bags we use to carry purchased goods, etc. The goal is to replace these plastic bags with reusable cloth bags that are being sold at different stores. By including members of the Local Association to Promote People with Disabilities (APROPDIS) the students aimed to generate an environmental and social benefit. The members of APROPDIS collaborated in the labeling of these reusable bags by adding the supermarket name, the Caring for Our Watersheds and the Institution logos.

These bags are now found in local supermarkets. They are stacked next to a donating box where interested patrons can take a bag and donate money at their discretion. This money is given to the APROPDIS for them to continue designing and “selling” the bags.

The students worked together with another school that had proposed a similar project.

Database of the Good Things

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to raise awareness of actions that are beneficial to our watersheds and the environment. The project proposed the creation a geographic information system (GIS) which is viewable on the web, and illustrates beneficial actions that have been done in the Areco River. The display will be organized and linked to manuals with explanations. The proposal divides the actions into the following segments: agriculture, stockbreeding, industrial, schools/institutions and communities. Specialists of each segment will choose and add information to the database on environmentally friendly actions that benefit the San Antonio watersheds.

This will be one of the first databases with information of our watershed!

Battery Waste Disposal

2012 Brighton, Ontario, Canada

Kevin Peterson, Grade 8 student at Brighton Public School identified improper disposal of batteries as Battery waste poses a large problem in landfills since large amounts of batteries are disposed improperly. The main problem with batteries in landfills is the chemicals such as lead, cobalt, cadmium, lithium and potassium hydroxide that get leaked into drinking water then consumed by humans. This then causes a large amount of medical conditions.

Kevin noted that, although there are battery recycling programs in place, a lack of advertisement as well as lack of drop off boxes remains a problem. His proposal was to display posters where batteries are sold to inform customers about the battery recycling programs. In addition drop off boxes for batteries are needed in more local businesses and community centers not just big box stores to help expand these programs into smaller communities.

After the Caring for our Watersheds contest Kevin presented his idea to Brighton Municipal Council. They were so impressed that they not only gave Kevin permission to locate a battery drop off box and poster in the municipal building, they also agreed to fund the cost of all the boxes and posters.

GreenLemon

2012 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Kyle Cousins with the EcoJustice program at St. Edward School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan developed a wonderful idea about how to help protect the watershed. Kyle’s idea was to create an environmentally-friendly and chemical-free all-purpose cleaner that would be simple enough for people to make in their own households. He chose to make a chemical free cleaner for his watersheds project because when you’re cleaning and you use a chemical-based cleaner and some of the cleaner goes down the drain, it will eventually end up polluting the watershed. However, if you use a chemical-free cleaner, then you don’t have to worry about chemical-based pollution coming from that cleaner. Greenlemon (lime) photo student action project

The benefits of using a homemade cleaner greatly outnumber the disadvantages. First off, it will save you money because cleaners at stores can be quite pricey, but when you make your own, the ingredients are much less expensive. Next, GreenLemon is environmentally friendly because without chemicals there is no chemical pollution. Another advantage to making your own cleaner is that you can use the same bottle over and over again, thus you will not need to get a new bottle every time. This will reduce the amount of plastic that either needs to be recycled or might find its way into the watershed or landfill. As well, since GreenLemon has no chemicals, it is safer for children and pets, as well as adults.

Kyle created a blog to help share his cleaning solution in addition to including the recipe at this school and his school newsletters.

GreenLemon Cleaning Solution- 4L Recipe 3L of Water, 3 cups Vinegar, 1/4 cups Baking Soda Add 15ml of Lemon Juice to every 1L of solution at time of use