Stamford's Westhill Wins 'Keep America Beautiful' Recycling Award

Stamford's Westhill High School won a $1,000 award Thursday morning after taking first place in Keep America Beautiful's Recycle-Bowl, a nationwide recycling competition for elementary-, middle- and high-school students, sponsored by Nestlé Waters North America.

The award was presented by Keep America Beautiful and a special appearance by Stamford mayoral candidate Rep. William Tong.

Westhill took first place by recycling 3.56-pounds of waste per student between Oct. 15 through Nov. 9, 2012.  The total amount of recyclables recovered during the 2012 competition added up to 4.5 million pounds, which in turn prevented the release of nearly 1,717 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE), according to a release from the event.

"Keep America Beautiful is pleased with the great momentum Recycle-Bowl achieved in its second year, and our congratulations go out not just to Westhill High School, but to all the effort of students, teachers and school administrators across America," said Matt McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. "Recycle-Bowl provides teachers with a great opportunity to integrate math, science and sustainability lessons into classroom curricula through experiential education as well as a way to introduce recycling into a school’s general operations."

Recycle-Bowl by the Numbers:

• 1,577 schools registered
• 901,500 students participated in the competition.
• 4.5 million pounds of recyclables recovered
• On average, 5.62 pounds of material were collected per person during the four weeks of the competition.