America Recycles Day

Students celebrate America Recycles Day at Wilchester Elementary.

Several elementary schools celebrated America Recycles Day recently by taking part in a friendly contest to see which SBISD campus could recycle more plastic bags – an endless element of life in modern America, especially for those do the family grocery shopping.

On Nov. 15, Frostwood and Wilchester elementary schools accepted clean and dry plastic bags as students arrived at campus and also during the school day. In related recycling action, Nottingham Elementary held a fifth annual school-wide recycling competition between grade levels, also on Nov. 15.

A Frostwood Elementary student holds up a plastic bag chain made from bags collected for the school-wide recycling competition.

Several other SBISD schools took part as well, based on related recycling reports. 

Frostwood and Wilchester competed to fill large bins, with a winner chosen based on full bins and extra bags. All agree that Mother Earth was the really big winner!

At the final tally, Wilchester Elementary filled one bin completely as well as a dozen 55-gallon drum liner bags of all types. Frostwood students filled one bin with plastic bags.

Both schools registered their recycling effort with America Recycles Day, which is a national initiative of Keep America Beautiful. More details can be found at the America Recycles Day website.

America Recyles Day is designed to increase awareness about the importance of recycling for the future health of local communities, business and industry, as well as the planet itself. Recycling now plays an important role in sustainable materials management, and is a first link in the manufacturing supply chain.

The U.S. recycling industry now transforms more than 135 million metric tons of used or obsolete materials into useful raw materials for manufacture into new and valued products. Such recyclables were valued at $80 billion last year, a three-fold increase since 2000,  reports Keep America Beautiful.

America Recycles Day also educates students, parents and families on plastic bag recycling, a growing interest. Many grocery stores now provide collection area or containers for these plastic bags.

At Nottingham Elementary, the recycling effort encourages students to participate in recycling at school and at home. The campus recycles paper, plastic, glass and metal every day, reports school PTA Recycling Chairperson Ruth Parks.

Fun facts about recycling were announced during morning announcements before the grade-level competition.

“On the morning of the competition, students bring paper to recycle and place it in their grade level boxes in front of the school. They are also encouraged to bring the paper from their classroom recycling bin to be included. The paper is weighed and the grade level with the most paper by weight wins a popcorn party for the entire grade,” she said.

Nottingham fifth-graders were the popcorn party winners this year. At Frostwood and Wilchester, student groups recruited helpers. Wilchester’s new KSHAC(Kid School Health Advisory Council) and the Frostwood Tigers were active in plastic bag collecting and recycling.

Wilchester KSHAC students helped promote the recycling event by making plastic bag chains to decorate campus and created signs. They even inspired a third-grade teacher to reuse plastic bags to refresh and refill classroom bean bag chairs.

Student KSHAC group members included Ian Ong, Iris Hanszen, MacSwain Melcher, Holly Horton, Anisia Gibson, Sheza Khan, Macy Delgadillo, Morgan Swearer, Lucy Grace Guthrie, Andrew Cannon, Campbell Woodard, Danika Franckaerts, Morgan Suman, Jack Paris, Noah Kassner, Topher Smith, Haran Park and Addison Eccles.