Keep PA Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful are again teaming up with Nestle Waters North America to announce the launch of the second annual Recycle-Bowl youth recycling competition. 

In its inaugural year, more than 1,200 elementary, middle- and high-schools around the country, representing more than 500,000 students, participated in a fun, interactive way to learn about waste reduction and environmental responsibility through in-school recycling.

Sixty-seven percent of participating schools saw a “significant” or “some” increase in the amount of materials their school recycled during the competition timeframe.

Registration for this incentive-based recycling competition is now open to all U.S. schools at the Recycle-Bowl website. The competition runs from October 15 through November 9, culminating around America Recycles Day.

Participating schools will track and report how much recyclable material they collect for a chance to win prizes. At the close of the four-week competition, the school in each state that collects the most recyclable material per capita will win $1,000.

A national champion will then be chosen from among the statewide winners to receive an additional grand prize valued at $2,500.

“Inspiring young people to recycle at school reinforces the importance of recycling everywhere, whether at home or on-the-go,” said Matt McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “And while students are becoming better recyclers, their school facilities are also increasing their capacity to handle and recover more recyclable materials, thus creating better and more efficient systems for reducing their waste.”

Educational recycling activities will also be provided online and through a registration toolkit. Recycle-Bowl is sponsored by Nestle Waters North America.

"Nestle Waters North America is eager to see more recycling take place in our schools,” said Heidi Paul, vice president of corporate affairs for Nestle Waters North America. “We’re proud to partner with Keep America Beautiful on this important recycling initiative.”  

8/13/2012