Keep America Beautiful, Inc., the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, has announced the winners of “Recycle-Bowl”, the first comprehensive nationwide recycling competition for elementary-, middle- and high-school students. Recycle-Bowl was conducted during the four weeks leading up to America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, 2014. America Recycles Day celebrates the benefits of recycling and provides an educational platform that motivates people to take action to recycle more and recycle smarter, influencing recycling behaviors at work, at home and on the go.
Public and private schools in Whitfield County currently participate in Target Recycling at School, a free recycling collection service offered by the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority.
With the assistance of the DWSWA’s recycling center, 36 local schools were registered for the 4th annual nationwide competition. The national competition took place concurrently with the local recycling contest. At the end of the competition period the weights of the recyclables collected at each school were reported to Recycle-Bowl.
Seventy-six schools in Georgia participated at the state level recycling as much as possible during the weeks of Oct. 15 to Nov. 15. At the state level, three local schools placed in the Top 5 in Georgia taking second, third, and fourth place. The national winner was Magnet Traditional School in Phoenix, Ariz. Below are the top five schools in the state of Georgia for Recycle-Bowl 2014:
1. Cumming Elementary, Cumming
2. Learning Tree School, Dalton
3. New Hope Middle School, Dalton
4. Pleasant Grove Elementary, Dalton
5. White Sulphur Elementary, Gainesville
Nation-wide nearly 900,000 students and teachers competed in Recycle-Bowl, striving to recycle as much as possible. Recyclables recovered during the 2014 competition totaled 4.4 million pounds, which prevented the release of 7,187 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). In real-world terms, this reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to the annual emissions from 1,409 passenger cars.
“Through a fun and friendly competition, Recycle-Bowl shines a spotlight on school recycling and instills environmental values in our younger generations,” said Jennifer Jehn, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “It’s inspiring to see students across the country becoming so enthusiastic about recycling and conserving our planet’s natural resources."