Keep Genesee County Beautiful partnered with Flint, Michigan, Community Education at six schools to host the a local Recycle-Bowl recycling competition. Through Recycle-Bowl, Flint schools recycled more than 10,500 pounds of trash and earned $9,500 for their buildings.

As part of a national campaign to improve recycling in schools, Brownell, Doyle-Ryder, Freeman, Holmes, Neithercut and Southwestern competed against one another to recycle the most materials and for a chance to win up to $5,000 for their school, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the WalMart Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company, the PepsiCo Foundation and Nestlé Waters North America. Doyle Ryder Elementary School turned trash into treasure, coming in first place with 3,778.35 pounds of recyclables.

“Recycle-Bowl provided Flint students with ‘teachable moments’ about the benefits of recycling, while inspiring them, their teachers, and school administrators to recycle more,” said Karen West, executive director of Keep Genesee County Beautiful. “The competition served as a fun, friendly way for Flint students to learn and recycle more.”

Brownell STEM Academy earned second place with 2,074.95 pounds of recycling and won $3,000. Freeman Elementary came in third place with 2,038.37 pounds and received a prize of $1,500.

Recycle-Bowl participants tracked how much material (cardboard, empty water bottles, and paper) they collected during a four-week timeframe. The competition was part of an overall recycling awareness and education program coordinated by Keep America Beautiful and Keep Genesee County Beautiful.