Egg Harbor City Community School of Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, today was crowned national champion of Keep America Beautiful’s Recycle-Bowl, the nationwide recycling competition for elementary-, middle- and high-school students, teachers and school communities.
Competing against 1,266 schools spanning 45 states and the District of Columbia, Egg Harbor City Community School students recycled 50 pounds of materials per student and teacher during the competition. The school, representing 4th-8th grade, will be awarded a recycled content plastic park bench, courtesy of Trex, and $1,000 worth of recycling bins from Busch Systems. The four-week Recycle-Bowl competition was conducted in the fall, culminating on America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, 2015.
“Egg Harbor City Community school exemplifies the goals and mission of Recycle-Bowl. Three years ago, the school started a recycling program as part of its participation in Recycle-Bowl and the school has climbed the ranks to become our national champion,” 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. Congratulations to Egg Harbor City Community School and all of our statewide winners.”
Nearly 700,000 students and teachers participated in Recycle-Bowl, striving to recycle as much as possible. Recyclables recovered during the 2015 competition totaled 4 million pounds, which prevented the release of 5,726 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). This reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to the annual emissions from 954 passenger cars.
“Today’s students need to know that the good choices and practices they make today will have a lasting impact, on their community,” said Lisa Jiampetti, 21st Century Community Learning Project Coordinator at the Egg Harbor City Community School. “Unlike other school-based recycling contests, Recycle-Bowl offers educational resources and other tools that can help lead to changing or sustaining positive recycling behavior. It has helped our school build a recycling program from the ground up that is now second to none within Atlantic County and New Jersey.”
Other 2015 national category winners are:
- Community Division: Hillcrest Elementary School (Dublin, Georgia)
- District Division: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (Orange County, North Carolina)
- Waste Reduction Champion: IS 303 Herbert S. Eisenberg School (Brooklyn, New York)
- Food Scrap Collection Champion: Rancho Medanos Junior High (Pittsburgh, California)
- Most Improved School: Priest Elementary Middle School (Detroit, Michigan)
Priest Elementary/Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, will receive $1,500 worth of recycling bins from Busch Systems for demonstrating the most improvement in its recycling per capita rate from 2014 to 2015.
“Priest Elementary/Middle School has really enjoyed participating in Recycle-Bowl,” said Kimberly Laylock, whose Priest Elementary/Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, won the “Most Improved” category. “We use the competition to promote recycling and environmentally positive behaviors to our students, which they share with their families at home. Our school takes pride in how much we’ve been able to improve our recycling program this year and believe Recycle-Bowl is an important piece of our success.”
For more information, visit www.kab.org.