Students launch reward-based cleanup initiative in Brockville

A group of students from Athens District High School (ADHS) is looking to make Brockville a little cleaner by launching The Clean Act, a reward-based litter cleanup initiative designed to encourage youth participation in community stewardship.

Teacher Jason Livingstone was at the Brockville General Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 18, representing the students and delivering a presentation to promote the initiative and seek council’s support.

The Clean Act is a litter cleanup campaign designed to incentivize environmental stewardship among youth within Brockville by encouraging community members to collect garbage in exchange for tokens that can be redeemed for rewards at participating local businesses. 

Community members are encouraged to collect garbage in clear bags, provided by and distributed at the Cooperative Care Centre at 1805 Oxford Avenue. One full bag of trash can be exchanged for a token, which is then redeemable for discounts or free items at participating locations such as The Fudgery, Peak Performance,  Shoppers Drug Mart on King Street, 241 Pizza, Fat Les’ on King, and MacArthur’s Barbershop. 

Livingstone explained, “These rewards could mean a number of different things such as a free lunch, a coffee, or admission to a museum.”

Building the idea around a reward system was inspired by similar initiatives such as Copenpay in Denmark and the Red Bag Program in Squamish, BC. Livingston explained, “I was charged with teaching this experiential learning course, which has no real curriculum, so it’s kind of a pilot project for individual students in alternative education programs. I decided to adopt it for a whole class.”

The ADHS students behind The Clean Act hope to expand their venture by partnering with more businesses, particularly in Brockville’s north end. “Through this project that we started last term, the students have really developed a lot of transferable skills.” Livingston noted the students had practised skills such as letter writing, recruiting businesses, budgeting and pitching presentations.

“After our tour of the Cooperative Care Centre, you could really see the students’ growing sense of empathy towards unhoused people,” Livingston shared. “That was really remarkable for me to see as a teacher.”

The Clean Act was introduced to the Brockville General Committee in the hopes of gaining municipal support to enhance the program’s impact within the city. The primary costs associated with the operation are garbage bags, vinyl, transportation costs, and materials for the tokens, which have all been mostly covered by the grant allocated by Real World Learning. 

Livingston explained, “Where we’ve come into a bit of a snag is the disposal of the litter. It was suggested I come to you folks at City Hall to network and kind of come up with a plan.”

The General Committee were quick to offer their praise and congratulations to Livingston and his students for their success thus far. In terms of the next steps, it was suggested that Livingston reach out to the Downtown Brockville Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Brockville Tourism to receive further support and partnership from the city.

To wrap up the conversation, Mayor Matt Wren assured Livingston that there was a solution being worked on. “I think we do have a solution that we can assist you with the disposal side of things there. I want to see this continue to grow and build.”