F.J. McElligott cleans up in 10th annual battery collection competition

Greater Nipissing Stewardship Council
News Release

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2011 - 10th Annual Used Household Battery Collection Competition

North Bay - Over 5,500 high school students from 10 area high schools took part in this year’s collection competition. A grand total of 5,239 kg (over 11,549 lbs) of all types of household batteries were collected over an 8-week period in April and May. A few elementary schools also participated and provided what they collected to neighboring high schools.

The standard prizes of $400 each were up for grabs – to the school that collected the most batteries and the school that collected the most batteries per student. In celebration of the 10th anniversary, 2 additional prizes of $250 were included this year that resulted in the greatest improvement over 2010.

This year’s winners are…

Greatest Total Weight
St. Joseph-Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School 1,844 kg

Greatest Total Weight/Student
F.J. McElligott Secondary School 8.3 kg

Greatest % Improvement - Total Weight
F.J. McElligott Secondary School 1.30%

Greatest % Improvement - Total Weight/Student
F.J. McElligott Secondary School 1.5%

The other participating schools included: Algonquin, Chippewa, Franco-Cite, Nbissing, Northern, Odyssée, West Ferris and Widdifield.

The competition was co-organized by the Stewardship Council and Nipissing Environmental Watch and was once again generously funded by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

Over the past 10 years over 39,000 kg of dead batteries have been diverted from local landfill sites. Batteries are a key source of hazardous waste that contain heavy metals and other chemicals such as acid, cadmium, mercury, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel and lithium – all of which are very harmful to the environment.

Plans are already underway for next year’s competition and the possible expansion to the senior elementary schools.

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