Students at Doyle Ryder Elementary School take recycling seriously, and it earned them $5,000 for their school.
Doyle Ryder came in first place Keep Genesee County Beautiful’s 7th annual Recycle-Bowl competition with 10,596.53 pounds of recycling. That’s a lot of trash that won’t end up in landfills.
Keep Genesee County Beautiful collaborated with Flint’s Community Education Initiative, coordinated by the Crim Fitness Foundation in partnership with the Flint Community Schools to host the contest.
All total, Recycle-Bowl Flint schools recycled more than 10,500 pounds of trash during the Recycle-Bowl.
Recycle-Bowl participants tracked how much material, such as cardboard, empty water bottles and paper, they collected during a four-week time frame. The competition was part of an overall recycling awareness and education program coordinated by Keep America Beautiful and Keep Genesee County Beautiful.
Brownell STEM Academy earned second place with 2,074.95 pounds of recycling and won $3,000. Freeman Elementary came in third place with 2,038.37 pounds and received a prize of $1,500.
“Recycle-Bowl provided Flint students with ‘teachable moments’ about the benefits of recycling, while inspiring them, their teachers and school administrators to recycle more,” says Karen West, executive director of Keep Genesee County Beautiful. “The competition served as a fun, friendly way for Flint students to learn and recycle more.”
The program was part of a national campaign to increase recycling in schools. Flint Community Schools district schools competed against one another to recycle the most materials and win up to $5,000, thanks to the sponsorship of the Walmart Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company, the PepsiCo Foundation and Nestlé Waters North America.
Last year the four companies announced they would provide up to 6.5 million bottles of safe, clean, drinking water to Flint school students as well as the storage and delivery of the water bottles and recycling bins for each school.
Funding the integrated recycling education and awareness initiative for all 10,000 students helped increase the number of plastic bottles recycled within school grounds. It also helped increase the passion to recycle among students, teachers and staff and encourage students to recycle at school, at home and on-the-go.
“Through participation in Recycle-Bowl and America Recycles Day, the only nationally-recognized day dedicated to celebrating recycling in the U.S., Keep America Beautiful is helping communities spotlight recycling on a local level by educating students and community members on how and what to recycle,” says Brenda Pulley, Keep America Beautiful senior vice president/recycling.
The Keep Genesee County Beautiful program consisted of:
- Class room supplies
- Take-home educational pieces for parents
- Recycling opportunities for parents
- In school classroom education
- After school and summer activities
Keep America Beautiful developed this educational program specifically for Flint Community Schools. The goal was to “give the kids a sense of empowerment and community pride in light of Flint’s Water Crisis and the subsequent increase in plastic waste,” according to Keep Genesee County Beautiful’s website.
Keep Genesee County Beautiful encourages, educates and engages residents in creating beautiful, clean, sustainable neighborhoods, parks and open spaces throughout the City of Flint and Genesee County. Its goal is to improve communities, their environment and quality of life, by cultivating personal responsibility in residents. Recycling is an essential part of that goal. You can find out more on Facebook, Twitter and at kgcb.net.
Some of the students participated in Keep Genesee County Beautiful programs Some attended a summer camp where they learned how to recycle and made art projects out of plastic water bottles. They were also given item made from recycled materials. Their favorite item was the backpacks made from recycle water bottles.
Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Its goal is to end littering improve recycling and beautify America’s communities. You can learn more on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube or on the website kab.org.
Doyle Ryder Elementary School wins $5,000 in Keep Genesee County Beautiful Recycling Contest added by Marge Sorge on
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