Indiana Elementary School Is First Repeat Recycle-Bowl Champion

For the second time, Bon Air Elementary beat out more than 1,000 other schools to become the K-12 recycling competition's National Champion.

Bon Air Elementary in Kokomo, IN has been crowned as the first repeat national champion of Keep America Beautiful’s Recycle-Bowl, the national recycling competition for elementary-, middle- and high-school students, teachers and school communities.

recycling competition
(Photo: Keep America Beautiful)

Competing against more than 1,000 schools spanning 42 states and the District of Columbia, Bon Air Elementary recycled more than eight tons of materials during the competition. The school will be awarded a recycled content plastic park bench, courtesy of Trex, and $1,500 worth of recycling bins from Busch Systems. The Recycle-Bowl competition took place over four weeks in the fall, culminating on America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, 2017.

“We are thrilled for the students of Bon Air Elementary School for exemplifying the mission of Recycle-Bowl,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president/recycling, Keep America Beautiful. “It’s encouraging to see students of all age groups and from all parts of the country get so excited about recycling both at school and at home. Congratulations to Bon Air Elementary School and all of our Recycle-Bowl statewide winners.”

More than 550,000 students and teachers participated in Recycle-Bowl, striving to recycle as much as possible. Recyclables recovered during the 2017 competition totaled two million pounds, which prevented the release of 2,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). This reduction in greenhouse gases is comparable to removing the air pollution from almost 600 passenger cars from the road.

“I am proud of how well Bon Air has performed in this competition. I hope they continue on this path even when Recycle-Bowl is over,” said Mikki Jeffers, executive director, Howard County (Indiana) Recycling District. “For Taylor Elementary to receive the most improved on recycling is wonderful. The school came back focused on raising awareness and changing people’s behavior to recycle more in the school.”

Additional 2017 Recycle-Bowl national category winners are:

  • Community Division: Keres Children’s Learning Center; Cochiti Pueblo, NM
  • District Division: Ocean City School District; Ocean City, NJ
  • Waste Reduction: Woodland Park Academy; Grand Blanc, MI
  • Food Scrap Collection: Centennial Elementary; Springfield, OR
  • Most Improved: Taylor Elementary; Kokomo, IN and Bell’s Hill Elementary; Waco, TX: Thanks to their unwavering commitment and progress, Taylor Elementary and Bell’s Hill Elementary will receive $1,500 worth of recycling bins for demonstrating the most improvement in its recycling per capita rate from 2016 to 2017.

The list of the 2017 Recycle-Bowl division and statewide winners are on the Recycle-Bowl website, along with descriptions of the national competition categories.