The Yale Key Club and the Yale Eco Club continue to make Yale Secondary School in Abbotsford a greener place.

This last year students have taken on the task of making their school more environmentally friendly. This has gone beyond its classrooms into the halls and the surrounding parks.

The Eco Club has established a recycling program in the cafeteria that now separates paper, cans/bottles and compost. With the assistance of funding from the school district, the club was able to label purchased containers with the three types of recycling. This has created an increase in recycling and a decrease into what goes into the garbage bin.

The Eco Club also continues to meet and clean up local parks and were hard at work this spring in areas surrounding the school.

Under the leadership of Tanya Drouillard and Sarah Henry, teachers are continually reminded with little notes on their desks or mail boxes to turn off computers, lights and recycle paper in their rooms.

The Key Club is responsible for collecting all cans and bottles in the hallways and classrooms. Since the school district has removed pop machines from schools there has been a 90 per cent increase in water and juice containers.

This money gets put to good use for scholarships, needy families and leadership conferences for students.

The special education department also contributes to the effort by collecting all paper recycling in the classrooms. Students come to the classroom on a daily basis and empty the containers, which are then recycled.