Old batteries go to school: recycling project mobilizes students' green brigades in 45 Laval schools

The project is described by its initiators as "the biggest and most important recuperation project in Quebec schools." Launched by the Regional Conference of Elected Representatives (CRÉ) de Laval, the project involves 45 schools from both the Commission scolaire de Laval (CSDL) and the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB) who are members of the AVEC project (Avenir viable école communauté – Viable future for school and community). The CSDL administers 66 schools on Laval island. At last count, the Laurier Board numbered 15 schools and several adult education centres on Laval-island, among the 40-plus institutions it administers throughout its territory.

The term 'systematic fashion' aptly describes the community path followed by the used battery – from the child's home to the green brigade (students) of the school, right up to the recycling company.

The young people are fully involved in this chain. They are an important link in the implementation of the project, consistent with the aims of the AVEC program within which the battery recuperation initiative is undertaken.

The recuperation calls for the safe transporting of batteries from the home to the school in an individual container. The batteries are then transferred to the school's general container. These two pieces of equipment "are resistant to heat and to the acid of the batteries," Mr. La Roche specifies. Each school is equipped with a central container and some individual ones.

"We only issued a small number of individual containers to facilitate the task for the green brigade," notes Mr. La Roche, a former teacher of environmental management at Rosemount Cegep.

The meager 2% batteries recuperated annually in Canada are mostly sent to incinerators or buried in safe ways. For example, the metal content of rechargeable batteries amassed at Laval city hall during collection of hazardous materials days is recycled. The non-rechargeable batteries are buried in safe ways.

At the Boîte Jaune, the aim is to recover up to 90% of the metal in all batteries. The company is close to reaching an agreement with a European firm that uses a pyro-metallurgical process to extract metal from used batteries, says Boîte Jaune spokesperson Christiane Royet.

The extracted product is converted to alloys resold on the raw materials market. Materials recycled in this manner are used to make new batteries or other industrial products. For the time being, all batteries are put in storage. "Not a single battery is buried," assures Mrs. Royet.

The training of young people in the schools will be coordinated by the Association québécoise pour la promotion de l'éducation relative a l'environnement (Quebec Association for Promoting Environmental Education). The Forum Jeunesse Laval has also pitched in with a contribution of $20,000 toward the purchase of the central containers and in support of the services related to collecting and recycling the batteries.

(Photo: Martin Alarie)