Regional ISD Spotlight

Spotlight

Mesquite ISD Sweeps Reycle Bowl Competition!

Environmental responsibility starts at school in Mesquite, Texas, where Rutherford Elementary has just been announced as the winner for Texas' second annual Recycle-Bowl competition. Keep Mesquite Beautiful registered 50 Mesquite ISD schools to participate in the Keep America Beautiful's Second Annual Recycle-Bowl. The competition was led by Green Teams at each of the area schools, and Rutherford Elementary was the big winner. Green Team Leader Desi Henk and students at Rutherford gathered a total of nearly 42 pounds per person in the school over a one-month period.

Mesquite ISD's Kimball Elementary was the state's second place winner in the competition and recycled an average of over 40 pounds per person, while Pirrung Elementary students came in third, recycling over 34 pounds per person during the contest period. Complete results for Texas can be found at http://recycle-bowl.org/wp-content/uploads/Rankings-School-Division2.pdf.

According to Keep Mesquite Beautiful Executive Director Paige Swiney, Mesquite has again proven itself to be a leader in school recycling. "We're so proud of the collaborative relationship that exists in Mesquite at all levels: Republic Waste provides the service at no cost to the district, the City of Mesquite and Keep Mesquite Beautiful work with ongoing school education, and Mesquite ISD's teachers, support staff and students work every day to make recycling part of their daily lives. When we teach our students to recycle at school, they bring what they've learned home to their families."

Keep Mesquite Beautiful works in partnership with the City of Mesquite' Recycling Education Department and Mesquite ISD schools to provide educational opportunities to students residing in the district. Programming includes classroom visits with Lucky the Ladybug and visits to Mesquite's Lawrence Homestead Outdoor Classroom.

Programming principals found within the Keep America Beautiful Waste in Place program and the Arbor Day Foundation's Nature Explore program help educators and volunteers engage children in meaningful activities to make a difference in their environment.

Keep America Beautiful (KAB) hosted a special event to celebrate the students' achievement as the statewide winners of Recycle-Bowl, the only comprehensive nationwide recycling competition for elementary, middle and high school students. School faculty, families and local dignitaries joined KAB and Nestle Waters North America, which sponsored the competition, to honor the winning students and present a check for $1,000.

More than 1,500 schools across the country participated in this year's competition. The total amount of recyclables recovered during the 2012 competition added up to 4.5 million pounds, which in turn is the equivalent of 334 cars being removed from the road. In fact, if all students in America recycled at the same rate, approximately 2.38 million tons of material would be diverted annually from landfills. That would be the weight of 201,135 school buses!

For more information go to http://recycle-bowl.org.

Recycle-Bowl Competition

Keep America Beautiful Presents the Recycle Bowl Competition for grades K-12! Public and private schools are encouraged to compete against one another for a cash prize. It doesn't matter if your school is well on its way to recycling greatness or if you are looking to start recycling at your school, there are categories for both.

Keep America Beautiful, the American Forest & Paper Association, and Nestle Waters have provided all the materials your school will need to compete. The first 1000 schools to register will receive a Recycle-Bowl coordinator toolkit. The toolkit will include Recycle-Bowl competition posters, lesson plans, a paper making DVD, plastic bottle flake "test tubes", a library book, etc.

 

For more information go to http://recycle-bowl.org to register and get all the details.

 

Recycled Fashion

Weatherford Highschool

This dress is just one example of the works created for a recent Project Runway type assignment by the students in Angela Arthurs’ Theatre Production class at Weatherford High School. This piece, designed and created by Amy Davis, is made from recycled newspaper, trash bags, and bits of scrap fabric. The only new items used were thread, hot glue, and a bit of ribbon in the corset-style bodice. And, yes, it’s wearable, and almost prom-worthy. Amy is a junior at Weatherford High School.

NCTCOG

The North Central Texas Council of Governments broke into the recycling fashion scene during recycling week.

Employees of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) find that you don’t have to be a student to recreate fashion from discarded items. Each year the NCTCOG has an array of events offered to staff members in celebration of ‘Texas Recycles Day’. One of the events planned for staff was a friendly "Trashion Fashion Show" competition between departments during this year’s "'Green Products Show"'. Each department put together a "Trashover Design Team"(see picture below) that designed outfits that ranged from whimsical to elegant and made with items ranging from food packaging, paper, grocery bags pleated and woven, even animal feed bags cut and sewn to create fun apparel. If an item can be thrown away it was fair game to be turned into a fabulous creation! Staff members came up with creative names such as Trashionista Gown; Pop of Bling Jewelry; Pretty as a Peacock; Sophisticated Gent; Raining Cats and Dogs; The Little Black Dress; and Tuti-Fruiti Fresh Fashion News! NCTCOG staff members look forward to the next "Trashion Fashion Show" competition!

 

Be Featured in the Spotlight!

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) would like your school or school district to share stories about projects conducted by your students and/or teachers which focus on the importance of environmental issues concerning source reduction, recycling, reuse, composting, and solid waste management. The story and picture(s) submitted will be featured as a spotlight story on the TimeToRecycle.com website under “Regional ISD Spotlight.”  This invitation is extended to any school or school district within the following counties: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise.

Listed below are a few examples of projects your students and/or teachers may have conducted and wish to share (no matter how large or small):

Develop a new or expand a current recycling program in your school or district.

Develop recycling education and training brochures, websites or kiosks for students and faculty.

Promote “Buy Recycled” office supplies district wide.

Develop a school or district wide composting program from cafeteria food scraps which will reduce frequency of solid waste service days (lowering your solid waste fees) as well as diverting items away from the landfill. Utilizing this compost as fertilizer where needed throughout the district will also reduce costs as there would be no need to purchase fertilizer.

Develop a district wide, yard waste recycling program by mulching wood waste collected from school property and utilizing the finished product where needed.

Develop a program that reuses or recycles old furniture or building materials once used by the district.

Submit your article (no more than 500 words) and picture(s) to Sandra Barba, Environmental Planner at sbarba@nctcog.org. Teachers, please note that NCTCOG will assume that a form giving CONSENT TO PUBLISH PHOTOGRAPHS OF STUDENT(S) has been properly signed by parents giving each student permission to have his or her picture published on the NCTCOG’s Time to Recycle website.