Uplands Park Elementary School was awarded $750 after placing second in B.C. in the 2017 Plastic Bag Grab Challenge.
The plastic bag collection contest saw schools from across Canada competing to gather the most bags and the north Nanaimo school collected 30,718 bags, earning it prize money, said Lisa Robinson, principal.
Parents and the school will decide together how best to spend the money and Robinson said it must be spent on initiatives that promote sustainability and keeping the planet green.
“We were actually looking at, and talking about, refillable water bottle stations, like they have in airports and some of the high schools,” said Robinson.
She said fruit trees for a courtyard garden and an aboriginal tea garden could be other options the money is spent on.
In all, the school diverted 246 kilograms of plastic, which will be recycled into plastic lumber and outdoor furniture, said challenge organizers in an e-mail to Robinson.
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