Students at Winnipeg's École George V were benched on Monday — and quite happy about it.

Students at É​cole George V in Winnipeg were given a bench made of recycled plastic. (Jaison Empson/CBC) The elementary school, on Grey Street in the Elmwood area, was rewarded for being among the top gatherers in the province's annual plastic bag roundup challenge. For their efforts, the students were presented with a bench made out of recycled bags.

The Bag Up Manitoba program ran throughout the month of October and involved 160 schools.

The program, which has been running in Winnipeg-area schools since 2008, has helped divert more than seven million plastic bags from landfills.

This year alone, in just one month, students collected 1.4 million plastic bags.

The types of bags collected include: