Pearl City Highlands
gets $10,000 for
recycling effort

Pearl City Highlands Elementary School won first place and $10,000 in the 2004 School Recycling Challenge for collecting 134,818 beverage containers, more than any other school.

Schools were divided into categories based on enrollment for the competition, which was developed by the Department of Health to jump-start the HI-5-cent Beverage Container Deposit Program.

Pearl City Highlands won in the medium-sized school category. Among small schools, Kohala High School won $10,000 for collecting 59,647 containers. Among large schools, Kahului Elementary took first place, also winning $10,000, for collecting 26,072 containers.

Pearl City Highlands practices recycling year-round, and school officials attribute its success to families that recycle regularly.

In two months, 58 schools statewide brought in a record 692,195 aluminum, plastic and glass beverage containers. The Health Department partnered with Foodland, 7-Eleven Stores, Star Market, Reynolds Recycling, Atlas Recycling, Honolulu Recovery and Maui Disposal Inc. in the effort.

"The schools that participated in the challenge have done a great job of recycling for our state," said state Health Director Chiyome Fukino. "We thank our partners for helping us to provide awards for all participants. We hope schools will consider making recycling a year-round activity."

The public school winners were:

Small schools category:

Medium schools category:

Large schools category:

Among private schools, the top three recyclers were Saint Theresa (Kekaha), Saint Catherine and Maryknoll High School.