Reducing plastic bag waste in the [SCHOOL NAME] community

Dear Parent/ Guardian,

Canadians generate 3.25 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. That’s enough to fill up 140,000 garbage trucks! When it comes to single-use plastic bags Canadians use so many that if we collected them all we would circle the globe 55 times!

To educate students and the community on plastic bag waste and the 3Rs, [SCHOOL NAME] will be participating in the Plastic Bag Grab challenge from Monday, April 15 – Friday, April 26, 2019.

The Plastic Bag Grab challenge, a program of Recycling Council of Ontario, in partnership with Walmart Canada, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, Cascades Recovery Inc., and Trex invites elementary schools across Canada to schools are challenged to learn and take action on plastics waste by reducing their use, while collecting discarded plastic bags for recycling in their schools and beyond.

What can [SCHOOL] win?A grand prize of $1,000 will be awarded to one school in each province/territory who best embraces the reduce and reuse objectives of the 2019 Plastic Bag Grab Challenge and best communicates their action to reduce plastic waste in their school community.

Prizes can be used towards school environmental initiatives such as gardens, solar panels, playground equipment, and more!

Last year, 635 schools across Canada participated in the challenge and collected 1.9 million plastic bags that were recycled into composite lumber for decks and outdoor furniture, by our program partner, Trex.

With your support, we can help millions of plastic bags get recycled instead of lost to disposal and spread the word on the 3Rs. To ensure we align with the program rules and messaging, please remember the following when sending plastic bags to school:

Only plastic shopping bags are accepted in the challenge. Although the following plastic film items may be accepted by municipal recycling

programs or retailers they are non-acceptable for this challenge: food storage bags, clear produce bags, frozen food bags, milk bags, snack bags, sandwich bags, dry cleaning bags, reseal able bags, plastic film packaging, or anything that is not a carry out plastic shopping bag.

Please remember to follow the 3Rs hierarchy: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Try to reuse a bag as many times as possible before sending it to school!

Encourage children to use the 3Rs in their everyday lives. Please stuff plastic bags into another plastic bag and bring to school for

collection. Don’t forget to follow us on social media using the hashtag #PlasticBagGrab!

Thank-you for your participation, we look forward to your support. For more information, please visit PlasticBagGrab.com or feel free to contact me.

Sincerely, [TEACHER’S NAME]