Congratulations to Gray’s Woods & Park Forest Elementary Schools for winning the Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge sponsored by the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority.

 Park Forest collected the most bags overall (1,497 pounds) and Gray’s Woods collected the most per capita (3.80 pounds per student).  Honorable Mention goes to CLC Charter School for a close second and unbelievable effort! 

Approximately 4,000 students from 16 State College Area Elementary Schools competed in the eight week Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge recycling a total of 5,631 pounds of plastic bags and film (that’s approximately 360,384 bags).

We would like to thank our partners, The Centre Region Council of Governments, State College Borough, The Trex Company, Weis Markets, Lowe’s and A Bag’s Life.  They were instrumental in the success of the challenge. 

Gray’s Woods & Park Forest will each receive a raised garden bed made from Trex Recycled Plastic Lumber filled with Weis Choice Compost and $50.00 in “seed” money.

All sixteen participating schools will receive a Trex Recycled Plastic Lumber Park Bench (made from 10,000 recycled plastic bags) donated by Weis Markets as well as a Trex Recycled Plastic Lumber Bird House.

Our sixteen participating schools were as follows: CLC Charter School, Corl Street Elementary, Easterly Parkway Elementary, Ferguson Township Elementary, The State College Friends School, Goddard School, Gray’s Woods Elementary, Houserville Elementary, Lemont Elementary, Mt. Nittany Elementary, Nittany Christian School, Nittany Valley Charter School,

Our Lady of Victory Catholic School, Park Forest Elementary, Radio Park Elementary and The

Young Scholars of Central PA Charter School.

This challenge took place nationwide with 424 schools participating and collecting over 131,000 pounds of plastic.  This is approximately 9,779,625 plastic bags that have been recycled and saved from the landfill! This is an outstanding achievement and all schools should be commended for their participation. 

The plastic bags collected by the schools will be sent to the Trex Company and recycled into plastic lumber. 

For more information on this Challenge, please call 814-238-7005, or contact Amy Schirf by sending email to: aschirf@centrecountyrecycles.org.  

4/28/2014