Keep America Beautiful officials recently announced Pahoa High &Intermediate School (PHIS) is the Hawaii state champion of the 2013 Recycle-Bowl Competition (RBC).
Keep America Beautiful officials recently announced Pahoa High &Intermediate School (PHIS) is the Hawaii state champion of the 2013 Recycle-Bowl Competition (RBC).
Pahoa also was the state winner for the inaugural Recycle-Bowl Competition in 2011. Foothills Elementary Schools of Pittsburg, Calif., emerged as the 2013 national winner.
The Recycle-Bowl Competition, sponsored by the nation’s leading recycling and litter-prevention nonprofit organization, Keep America Beautiful (KAB), is a nationwide recycling competition for elementary, middle and high school students.
The objectives of the annual Recycle-Bowl Competition are to establish new recycling programs within schools, increase recycling rates in schools that currently recycle and provide teacher/student educational opportunities about recycling and waste reduction.
Students of PHIS’ Green Club worked as a team to gather, calculate and recycle a wide variety of materials around campus during the four-week contest period. Their recycling included 20,000 pounds of cafeteria food waste sold to farmers to feed their pigs or other livestock. An additional 7,000 pounds consisted of newspapers, cardboard and HI-5 cans for recycling.
“Recycling teaches us to be appreciative of the little things that many oversee,” said club President Kieran Long. “Everyone is so caught up in his or her lives, they don’t find time to practice sustainability. Practicing sustainability starts with the adults! Adults need to first inform themselves about the importance of maintaining the health and well-being of our planet, then influence and teach children like myself about this.
“I liked the way school staff around campus were so supportive of us, including RBC teacher coordinators Nancy Iaukea and Angela Mangano. Mrs. Hultman, who is an active recycler and teaches at our school, set the tempo for me. She recycled cardboard from the cafeteria food boxes every day, and took it to the Keaau Recycling Center.”
Hawaii’s contest was coordinated and promoted by Recycle Hawaii and Keep the Hawaiian Islands Beautiful.
“Keep Hawaii Beautiful, the Hawaii Island affiliate of KAB, is pleased that environmental clubs from Pahoa and Konawaena High Schools on the island of Hawaii helped their schools becomestate champs for three years running,” said president of Keep Hawaii Beautiful Paul J. Buklarewicz
A winner from each state and the District of Columbia receives $1,000 based on the most recycled material per person per school. A national champion is selected from the top state winners to receive an additional prize.
From Oct. 15-Nov. 15, participating schools recycled as much as possible. Some 689,044 students participated across America with 1,507 schools registered in all 50 states and the District of Columbia competing.
The total amount of recyclables recovered during the 2013 competition added up to 6.4 million pounds, which in turn prevented the release of nearly 8,913 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE). In real-world terms, this reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to the annual emissions from 473 passenger cars.
On average 7.75 pounds of material were collected per person during the four weeks of the competition.
A full list of winners can be found at www.Recycle-Bowl.org.
To sign up to receive updates for next year’s competition, visit www.research.net/s/R-BInterest.
For more information about how your school can compete in the 2013 Recycle-Bowl in Hawaii, contact Marsha Hee of Recycle Hawaii at hiartrecycle@gmail.com.