KerriChaseCochranePublic1February 27th marks International Polar Bear Day, a day that brings attention to the plight of polar bears impacted by climate change.

The Polar Bear Habitat is encouraging environmental stewardship at a young age by launching two Terra Cycle collections for cookie and cracker wrappers as well as electronic waste.

With the help of students from Aileen Wright Catholic School and Cochrane Public School, the Habitat will collect e-waste, cookie and cracker wrappers between International Polar Bear Day (February 27th) and Earth Day (April 22nd) and ship it off to Terra Cycle.

Terra Cycle is a company that specializes in reusing and recycling materials that are typically non-recyclable through most municipal waste management systems. This will divert waste away from landfills and expose students to a real world solution to resource conservation. The waste collected will also help raise funds for the Habitat’s conservation and education programs.

“It’s been so inspiring to see young students who are excited to get involved in this little experiment of ours and who want to be part of a solution that will help polar bears in the wild. We need to find ways to reduce waste and live sustainably that work for our own communities, and no one is too young to have a positive impact,” said Bear Keeper, Kerri Chase.

The schools are having a friendly competition to see who will collect the most waste averaged according to student body size. The Habitat has set up bins in visible areas of each school for the collection of electronic waste, and cookie and cracker wrappers. The bins are clearly labelled with posters that demonstrate what is acceptable to place in each bin using both words and pictures, available in both French and English. The program comes at no cost to the schools and Terra Cycle provides free shipping labels allowing the Polar Bear Habitat to send everything collected to their facilities free of cost. As a big issue with recycling is that often other materials than those desired for recycling get mistakenly placed in the collection bins, PBH staff and students will also sort through the bins before they are sent off.  The winning school will be announced at the end of the collection period and will be awarded a certificate from the Habitat, as well as a chance to watch a live feed of the resident polar bears through an online session with the bear keepers.

And, just to make sure the whole community can get involved, the Habitat will also be placing another two bins at the entrance to the facility at 1 Drury Park in Cochrane – but, just the students get the chance to win the coveted certificate and video call.

Qualifying items for the Cookie and Cracker Wrapper Collection are; individual-size cookie and cracker wrappers and pouches, and family-size cookie and cracker bags. Qualifying items for the Electronic Waste Collection are; Cell phones, tablets, e-readers, cameras, camcorders, laptops, mp3 players, graphing calculators, and inkjet cartridges only from HP and Canon printers.

The piles of trash left to decay in landfills decompose in anaerobic (low-oxygen) conditions releasing methane, a volatile greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases contribute to the warming of the earth’s climate, melting the arctic sea ice which is vital to polar bear’s ability to hunt, mate, and rear cubs. The sea ice in the arctic circle is forming later in the year and melting earlier, giving polar bears much less time to hunt seal and build up enough body fat to carry them through the warmer months when they can’t hunt on land. This has led to an observed decrease in the body condition of adult polar bears and has greatly decreased the survival of cubs.

“The program is a win for the students who learn about diverting waste from landfills, it’s a win for the Habitat which will earn funds that will contribute to our polar bear education programs, and it’s a win for polar bears in the wild,” said Bear Keeper, Alyssa Lamanna. “Your trash is our treasure.”