Classrooms in Edson and Yellowhead County rely on the EDRS for sustainability-related educational resources. The EDRS has embraced this role and developed a state-of-the-art education program, including community garden and depot tours, garden work bees, school waste sorting guide and public seminars. At least 2,500 students have accessed EDRS programs from 2018 to spring 2019.
Plan a tour, work bee, or presentation
Starting in 2018, we have been offering gamified classroom activities produced by professionals for the next generation of environmental stewards.
Garden Tours
EDRS is happy to offer tours of the Edson Community Garden. The tours typically take one and a half hours to complete and are offered in the months of May and June. Each tour includes the following things:
- a tour of the Community Garden
- building and painting houses (bird, bat, ladybug, bee or similar)
- snack and drink
If you are interested in having your class come for a tour of the Community Garden, please click on the link below.
Depot Tours
The Edson and District Recycling Society is proud to offer tours of the Edson Recycle Depot for students. The tours typically take one hour and 15 minutes to complete and are offered in the months of September, May and June. Each tour includes the following things:
- a tour of the Edson Recycle Depot
- making a cardboard bale
- a tour of the Take it or Leave it and Building Material Reuse Centre
*Tours may also include a demo and talk on solar energy, this is best for grades 4+
If you are interested in having your class partake in a depot tour, please click on the link below.
Waste Audits
In the past few years, the Edson and District Recycling Society has conducted waste audits at different schools throughout Yellowhead County including:
Ecole Pine Grove Middle School
Holy Redeemer Junior/ Senior Catholic High School
Parkland Composite High School
Wildwood School
Waste audits are crucial for gathering baseline data to help improve the schools waste reduction/ diversion programs. 2019 marked the second year a waste audit was conducted at Pine Grove, and thus served as a check up to see how they were doing nearly one year after their first waste audit and new waste diversion program implementation. It was found that Pine Grove diverted 90% of their waste over the year, which means instead of having a dumpster or two full of garbage at the end of the week, they now only have a few bags.
2019 was the first year waste audits were completed at Holy Redeemer, Parkland, and Wildwood. Each school had slightly different amounts of material found in their waste, but in general, the majority of the waste came from organic material (55-65%). Recyclable material was the second biggest waste culprit (35-40%), and approximately 10% of the recyclable items were reusable. One of the most important pieces of information that was discovered during the waste audits was that only 1-3% of the waste originally thrown into the dumpster (to be brought to a landfill) was actually proper landfill waste. That means that approximately 97% of the waste thrown into the garbage at the schools could be diverted! This is valuable knowledge, because it tells us that we have the opportunity to remove significant amounts of waste from landfills by implementing waste reduction/ diversion programs in our schools.
If you are interested in improving waste reduction at your school, please click on the link below.
Holy Redeemer’s New Bins 
Pine Grove’s Organics Bins 
Pine Grove’s New Bins
Edson and District Recycling Society 