Keep America Beautiful & The Ad Council Showcase Winners of "I Want To Be Recycled" Video Contest

STAMFORD, Conn., July 21, 2015 /3BL Media/ — What do a myth-busting 4-year old, a bathroom in which personal care products come to life, a talking pizza box and three teenagers with a Ouija board have in common? They are among the fresh ideas submitted by consumers to help increase awareness of and participation in recycling across America.

Keep America Beautiful and The Ad Council today announced the winners of its “I Want To Be Recycled” video contest, conducted in association with Zooppa, the global social community of creative talent. The contest asked crafty recyclers to create and submit videos about how to “give your garbage another life” through recycling. The contest is an extension of the “I Want To Be Recycled” Public Service Advertising (PSA) campaign, which was launched by Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council in 2013.

The contest challenged participants to illustrate the importance of recycling in their own voice through one of three topics: Upcycling Made Beautiful, Recycling Mythbusters and Recycling Community Stars. Winning videos were selected by a panel of judges from the Ad Council, Keep America Beautiful and Zooppa. Videos will be prominently featured and shared through Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council communications and social channels. Winners will share in a cash prize pool of $25,000.

Overall Winners:

• 1st Place: Potty Talk
  The members of the bathroom family discuss the pros and cons of letting a recycling bin move in.
   
• 2nd Place: Urban Myth
  On a dark and stormy night, three teenage girls gather to share stories of recycling gone wrong... but are they just tall tales? Only the Ouija board knows for sure.
   
• 3rd Place: Let’s Make Soap
  The story of Samir Lakhani, a 22-year-old Pittsburgh student and his creation, EcoSoap Bank, an organization that acquires and recycles leftover soap from hotels, and puts it into the hands of people in other countries who otherwise would have no access to the most essential form of hygiene.
   
• 4th Place: Pizza Box
  A talking Pizza Box makes it clear that it doesn’t want to be thrown in the trash and dreams of having another life after being recycled.

Category Winners:

• Upcycling Made Beautiful: Did You Guys Hear About John?
  John's “friends” in the bathroom give him a tough time when he dreams of becoming a hairbrush in his next life.
   
• Recycling Mythbusters: It’s My World
  It's important that we know what we can recycle and put the myths to rest. This video lets us know what we can recycle and explains that it is Our World.
   
• Recycling Community Stars: Saving Old Growth Lumber
  Detroit's Workshop makes furniture out of deconstructed homes that would usually be headed to a landfill. Kevin Borsay and James Willer are building a sustainable business that looks at recycling as an economic advantage, both creating jobs and beautifying blighted neighborhoods.

Early Entry Winners:

• 1st Place: Closing the Loop
  Drew Lamb, an entrepreneur and hardcore recycler from Southern Oregon, shows us how important it is to "close the loop" and maximize efficiency in operations, and in the process he dispels the silly—but unfortunately, all too common—notion that recycling is, "just for hippies." Because the truth is that recycling can be an extremely business-savvy decision.
   
• 2nd Place: Ask Kaitlynn
  Four-year old Kaitlynn, who recently learned about recycling in her Pre-K classroom, busts some myths in her very own talk show, Ask Kaitlynn.

The “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign educates Americans and encourages them to recycle more, recycle right and help them to make recycling a part of everyday life. The latest phase of the campaign, which launched in March 2015, encourages the recycling of personal care products in the bathroom with brand new ads created pro bono by agency Pereira & O’Dell highlighting what these products can become upon recycling. Check out the latest PSAs here and here. The campaign, which has generated nearly $90 million in donated media to date, directs consumers to IWantToBeRecycled.org, which includes comprehensive resources on recycling and an interactive game. The website offers information on which products to recycle, how to recycle products and what the products could potentially transform into when recycled properly. The site also includes infographics and detailed information on how to find a recycling facility nearby for a wide array of product categories. Learn more at IWantToBeRecycled.org.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With our national network of community-based affiliates, we work with millions of volunteers who take action in their communities to transform public spaces into beautiful places. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. Learn how you can donate or take action at kab.org, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

About The Ad Council
The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has affected, and continues to affect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit Adcouncil.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or view our PSAs on YouTube.

About Zooppa
Zooppa is the world’s leading source of user-generated advertising content. With a creative community of 335,000 members, Zooppa works with global brands and their agencies to produce fresh, authentic, high-quality content. Zooppa’s innovative model of social crowdsourcing offers brands and agencies a cost-effective, strategic approach to engage consumers, build online word-of-mouth, and gain marketplace insights.  For more information about Zooppa, go to www.zooppa.com.