2024 Student Video Contest: Recycling in Parks

2024 Student Video Contest - web image

This year’s student video contest is all about recycling in parks. In 2023, The District of West Vancouver launched its new Parks Recycling Program in Millennium Park, John Lawson Park, and Dundarave Park.

The new parks recycling bins provide additional opportunities for residents and visitors to recycle containers and food scraps (or organics) in their local parks. Before this program, approximately 50% of park waste could have been recycled instead of being disposed as garbage. 

We want students and the broader community to think about the benefits that the Parks Recycling Program provides to our community, and the importance of using this program properly. When recycling is not sorted, it all ends up in the landfill.

Videos should focus specifically on West Vancouver’s Parks Recycling Program:

  • What are the three recycling streams offered in our Parks Recycling Program? Why is offering multiple streams important?
  • How do you use these bins correctly? What does it mean to contaminate our recycling system? Remember – Bins don’t recycle, people do!
  • What actions can be taken to help encourage residents to use the Parks Recycling Program?
  • Why it is important to offer recycling in public spaces?

Students are encouraged to get creative! They could make a stop-motion about why recycling matters, a horror about not sorting recycling properly, or a music-video about why our community will benefit from the Parks Recycling Program.

Need some more help? Check-out the resources and fun facts sections below and be sure to watch videos from previous years. 
 

How to enter

1. Register

To enter the contest, you must be a West Vancouver resident and/or enrolled in kindergarten to Grade 12 in a West Vancouver school. Students must register BEFORE creating a video for the contest. This allows us to confirm eligibility and parental consent. If you do not register your video will not be considered.

Register HERE.

2. Make a video

Once you have registered, go ahead and make a video. All types of videos including live action, animation, claymation, stop-motion, music videos, etc. are accepted. Videos must be between 60 and 90 seconds long and focus on recycling in West Vancouver’s parks. Need some inspiration? Check out our resources section below.

3. Submit your video

Once you have created your video, upload it to a publicly accessible YouTube account and send us the link. For more information on posting a video to YouTube, check out How to upload a video to YouTube.

Submit your YouTube link HERE.

Deadline for submission is Monday, April 15, 2024. 
 

Judging and Prizes

Videos will be judged based on whether they demonstrate creativity, an understanding of the theme, technical quality, and overall message. Videos should be regionally focused on West Vancouver and demonstrate the benefits and importance of recycling in parks. 

With $1000 in cash prizes, we will be rewarding the top-10 videos as follows:

  • 1st place: $250
  • 2nd place: $200
  • 3rd place: $150
  • 4th place: $100
  • 5th to 10th place: $50 each

The winning videos will be selected by a panel of judges and announced in May 2024.
 

Resources

When putting your video together, remember to focus on this year’s theme—Recycling in Parks. Be sure to spend some time thinking about the story you want to tell and how you are going to tell it. If you’re looking for some more information and inspiration to help get you started, check out the winning videos from past contests and the links below.

West Vancouver – Parks Recycling Program

West Vancouver – Parks Recycling News

West Vancouver – Parks Recycling Report

West Vancouver – Parks Recycling ‘What Goes Where’

West Vancouver – Parks Recycling Program Locations

Recycle BC – Why Recycle?

Recycle BC – FAQ

Recycle BC – Recycling App

Recycle BC – What Happens to my Recycling?

Metro Vancouver – Food Scraps Recycling
 

Fun facts

  • In 2023, The District of West Vancouver launched its new Parks Recycling Program in Millennium Park, John Lawson Park, and Dundarave Park.
  • The new parks recycling bins provide additional opportunities for residents and visitors to recycle containers and food scraps (or organics) in their local parks.
  • Before this program, approximately 50% of park waste could have been recycled instead of being disposed as garbage and filling up our landfill.
  • Recycling in parks ensures that the community is kept clean and sanitary.
  • Recycling is a practical yet easy change to help curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the climate crisis.
  • When an item is recycled, it is processed and turned into something new rather than created out of virgin material or disposed of and treated as waste in a landfill.
  • Composting food scraps is an easy way to have a big impact in our region. By using organics bins, Vancouverites have: 
     
    • Saved 400,000 tonnes of food scraps from the garbage in 2021.
    • Prevented 160,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2021 – comparable to taking 50,000 cars off the road.
    • Diverted enough organic material to create 140,000 tonnes of finished compost in 2021 – enough to cover more than twice the area of downtown Vancouver!