Keep America Beautiful Announces America’s School Recycling Champions

STAMFORD, Conn., Feb. 13, 2013 /3BL Media/ - Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities, today announced the winners of “Recycle-Bowl,” the first nationwide recycling competition for elementary-, middle- and high-school students. Recycle-Bowl, sponsored by Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), reached more than 900,000 students across America with schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia competing.

First place went to Taylor Primary in Kokomo, Ind., where students recycled 47 pounds of waste per child. If all students in America recycled at the rate of this year’s Recycle-Bowl competitors, approximately 2.4 million tons of material would be diverted annually from landfills. That would be the weight of 201,135 school buses.

“Keep America Beautiful is pleased with the great momentum Recycle-Bowl achieved in its second year, thanks to the effort of students, teachers and school administrators across America,” said Matt McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “Recycle-Bowl provides teachers with a great opportunity to integrate math, science and sustainability lessons into classroom curricula through experiential education as well as a way to introduce recycling into a school’s general operations.”

From Oct. 15 through Nov. 9, 2012, participating schools recycled as much as possible. The total amount of recyclables recovered during the 2012 competition added up to 4.5 million pounds, which in turn prevented the release of nearly 1,717 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE). In real-world terms, this reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to the annual emissions from 334 passenger cars.

The competition offered a $1,000 prize to the school in each state that collected the most recyclable material per capita. A national champion was then chosen from among the statewide winners to receive an additional grand prize of an another $1,000 and a $2,500 store credit from Busch Systems to purchase recycling bins, earning a total of $4,500 in prize money for the Kokomo, Ind., school.

“Starting with preschool, our students are introduced to the importance of recycling.  Through each grade level they take on more recycling responsibility, “said Teri Stokes, principal of Taylor Primary School. “Recycling comes naturally. It's just part of our everyday routine at school.”

This is NWNA’s second year as the lead corporate sponsor of Recycle-Bowl. “Nestlé Waters North America is delighted that Recycle-Bowl’s second year has achieved such significant growth with a 25 percent increase in participating schools and nearly 1 million students receiving further education about the importance of recycling,” said Heidi Paul, vice president, corporate affairs, NWNA. “The increase in the number of schools using Recycle-Bowl as a way to start a school recycling program demonstrates its value.”

Support for the competition came from both state and local Keep America Beautiful partners. "The Indiana Recycling Coalition is thrilled to support Recycle-Bowl as we work to advance K-12 recycling across the state, and we could not be more proud that the 2012 Recycle-Bowl national winner is from Indiana," stated Carey Hamilton, executive director, Indiana Recycling Coalition.

A separate national category featured schools that allow drop-off material from the surrounding community, offering a first-place $1,000 prize, a second-place $750 prize and a third-place $500 prize. First place in the national drop-off category went to Lynden Christian School in Lynden, Wash. Its per capita rate was 550 pounds.

A full list of statewide winners can be found at Recycle-Bowl.org. To sign up to receive updates for next year’s competition, visit https://www.research.net/s/R-BInterest.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With a network of more than 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations including state recycling organizations, we work with millions of volunteers to take action in their communities. Keep America Beautiful offers solutions that create clean, beautiful public places, reduce waste and increase recycling, generate positive impact on local economies and inspire generations of environmental stewards. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. For more information, visit kab.org.

About Nestlé Waters North America
With 35 years of experience promoting healthful hydration in the bottled water segment, Nestlé Waters produces six regional spring water brands in the U.S., three international brands, and Nestlé Pure Life, its nationally distributed purified bottled water. The company's dedication to quality, employee development, community partnering, and its commitments to environmental stewardship, especially in the areas of water use, energy and packaging, have led Nestlé Waters to the number one bottled water position in the U.S.