Keep America Beautiful’s Recycle-Bowl Competition Announces Winners

Keep America Beautiful, the nonprofit dedicated to community improvement, announced the 2017 winners of its annual Recycle-Bowl competition. The competition saw 1,000 schools participate and recycled roughly 2 million pounds of material.

Bon-Air Elementary in Kokomo, Ind., became the first repeat national champion in the school division. In the community division, Keres Children’s Learning Center in Cochiti Pueblo, N.M., was the winner. Ocean City School District in Ocean City, N.J., was the champion of the district division.

“We are thrilled for the students of Bon-Air Elementary School for exemplifying the mission of Recycle-Bowl,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful, in a statement. “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.”

Woodland Park Academy in Grand Blanc, Mich., was the national champion in the waste reduction division. The food scrap collection division champion was Centennial Elementary in Springfield, Ore., and the most improved division champions were Taylor Elementary in Kokomo, Ind., and Bell’s Hill Elementary in Waco, Texas.

“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 of Howard County (Indiana) Recycling District, in a statement. “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.”