A group of Grade 7 and 8 students in Scarborough who wanted to help keep toxic products out of the environment collected more than 12,000 batteries, only to be told that Toronto's Toxics Taxi program would not pick them up.
Toxics Taxi is a program by the City of Toronto that picks up household hazardous waste. It is a free service for home owners in the city. But when the students asked for the used batteries to be collected for safe disposal, they were told no.
"When I called they said that they couldn't pick it up because we are an institution and not a residence," science teacher Yun Cheng said.
"And when I told them that the batteries actually came from homes, they said that they still couldn't pick it up."
But the environmentally conscious students at Bliss Carman Senior Public School did not give up.
"I thought that it was important that these batteries get recycled instead of just going to a landfill and contributing to the amount of garbage that we have," student J.J. Wannamaker said.
So they wrote a letter to city hall in March, hoping to get the decision reversed. Even that seemed to fall on deaf ears, until Coun. Glen De Baeremaeker learned of their problem.
He thanked the students for the efforts and arranged to have the batteries picked up for proper disposal.
"I feel terrible for these kids. They're trying to do the right thing and we adults are letting them down a little bit," De Baeremaeker told the Toronto Star.
With a report from CTV's Alex Mihailovich
