KALAHEO — Kalaheo School was crowned as the Hawaii state champion of Keep America Beautiful’s Recycle-Bowl, the national recycling competition for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, teachers and school communities.

Recycle-Bowl, which engaged nearly 730 schools spanning over four weeks in the fall, culminated on America Recycles Day on Nov. 15.

During the four-week program, Kalaheo School recycled 1,476.5 pounds of beverage containers, 1,200 pounds of cardboard, 142 pounds of glass, 84 pounds of paper and 2,902.5 pounds of food scraps, amounting to 5,280.5 pounds total waste kept from the landfill.

A total of 414 students and 33 teachers helped with the efforts coordinated by the Kalaheo School Parent Teacher Student Association under program chair Sera Burley and PTSA president Malie Smith.

“Kids need to learn about recycling, and this was a good way to get everybody involved. During this competition, we recycled 11.8 lbs per person in one month,” said Smith.

“We also have recycle Fridays every first Friday of the month where everybody can bring their HI5 recyclables to Kalaheo School,” said Burley, PTSA Recycle Program chair. “We make sure it gets to the recycle stations and use the funds for our students. We are thankful for the positive response of the community to our efforts. It is very encouraging.”

Students from national champion Kirk Middle School of Newark, Delaware, recycled 30.85 pounds of materials per student and teacher during the competition.

“It’s always exciting to see students from across the country and from all age groups get excited about recycling at school as well as at home or on the go,” said Keep America Beautiful Youth and Education Program Manager Kathryn Joblon. “Congratulations to Kalaheo School for taking the crown in Hawaii.”

During the four-week program, participating schools track and report how much recyclable material they collect. At the close of the competition, the school in each state (and the District of Columbia) that collected the most recyclable material per capita was crowned state champion, with a national champion chosen from the statewide winners. Schools that participate in past Recycle-Bowl competitions have been measured as recycling 10 percent more than schools that don’t participate.

In 2018, more than 260,000 students and teachers participated in Recycle-Bowl. Recyclables recovered during the 2018 competition totaled 1.3 million pounds, which prevented the release of 1,842.68 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. This reduction in greenhouse gases is equivalent to 4.5 million miles driven by an average passenger vehicle, and 643 tons of material recycled instead of landfilled.

Champions are crowned in five categories: school division, community division, district division, waste reduction and food scrap collection. The overall winner was Kirk Middle School in Newark, Delaware.