Material Exchange Supports The Creative Zone to Serve Schools and Day Cares
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About The Creative Zone
The Creative Zone is a partnership established in 2001 comprised of Family Day Care Services, the Peel District School Board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the YMCA of Greater Toronto, and the Region of Peel.
The Creative Zone and Peel Region Staff
Receiving nearly 4,000 visitors a year, teachers from the Peel District School Board, Kindergarten staff from the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board and childcare workers in Peel can visit The Creative Zone to browse and take an array of materials for their programs to support students and children.
Partnerships with corporations in the cosmetics, fabrics, furniture, and food and beverage sectors have been a big support to The Creative Zone and the continued feed stock of materials. On average, The Creative Zone receives over 6,000 kg of material every month!
One Person’s Trash is Another Person’s Treasure
Examples of Materials and Their Uses
View of the WarehousePaper Circle Cut OutsPaper Circle Cut Outs Used for ArtScrab FabricsScrab Fabrics Used for ArtTiresTires Used in the PlaygroundLipstick Trays from ManufacturingLipstick Trays Used for Math ClassZippers for Art ProjectsCardboard CylindersTin Boxes for Art Projects
Partnerships with Material Exchange
The Material Exchange program facilitates the exchange of material generated within the Partners in Project Green (PPG) community to divert waste from landfill and move towards a circular economy. Through this program, businesses (PPG members) provide information about the material they would like to offer. PPG then matches these businesses with organizations like The Creative Zone to keep the materials in use.
The Creative Zone has a long-standing relationship with the Material Exchange program, making use of things like office supplies, carpet samples, items to organize their warehouse, toys and kids’ furniture. Between 2022-2025, 10 exchanges have taken place, diverting 1.6 tonnes of material from landfill (avoiding 0.39 tonnes of GHG emissions) and saving Peel schools over $19,000.
How to Support The Creative Zone
The Creative Zone is run by two full-time staff and one volunteer. Their experience has been that popular items amongst teachers and students has been large quantities of the following items:
