Top Schools in the "Bin It 2 Win It" Recycling Contest Announced

CINCINNATI, April 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunny Delight Beverages Co. (SDBC) and Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB) announced the winners of the six-month recycling contest "Bin It 2 Win It" with the help of defensive end for the Cincinnati Bengals, Michael Johnson, and Councilwoman Amy Murray. In just six months, the six participating schools diverted 66,665 lbs of recyclable material from the landfill. Rumpke delivered a huge pallet of crushed plastic bottles from their recycling center to help students visualize how much they recycled. (They collected more than 51 of those huge pallets.) Johnson reminded students "to think of the environment as a quarterback.  You have to do anything you can to protect him to make sure he is able to play the whole game, because you might not have a backup plan.  Recycling is one way we can protect our 'quarterback,' or our environment."

The contest, which started on November 15 in honor of America Recycles Day, appropriately wrapped up in celebration of Earth Day. Through a grant from SDBC, each school received a single stream recycling dumpster which was collected and weighed each week by Rumpke. Both KCB and SDBC provided educational resources and programming throughout the contest to more than 3,461 students to help them learn more about sustainability.

The schools were ranked by the amount recycled per capita. Billy Cyr, CEO of SDBC, and Ellen Iobst, Chief Sustainability Officer of SDBC, drove up in a vintage 1960s Volkswagen bus to award the top three winning schools with cash prizes and a plaque made from recycled material. In first place with a total of 14,040 pounds was St. Francis de Sales.  Their students recycled over 61 pounds per person and each received a sweatshirt made from recycled plastic bottles as a special prize for coming in first. The second place school, Covedale Elementary, recycled a total of 14,185 pounds – or 22.5 pounds per student. In third place was Cheviot Elementary which recycled almost 15 pounds per student (for a total of 9,630 pounds). In fourth place was Mt. Healthy High School who recycled 19,170 pounds or close to 14 pounds per student. Roger Bacon High School came in fifth place with almost 11 pounds per student (for a total of 5,470 pounds), and in sixth place was Chase Elementary which recycled 4,170 pounds or more than 9 pounds per student.

SDBC and KCB would like to congratulate these students for their dedication and willingness to participate in the recycling challenge. Many of the students have already expressed a desire to keep recycling in their schools.

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is an award-winning not-for-profit organization established in 1978 and is affiliated with Keep America Beautiful.  KCB's mission is to educate and encourage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments.

Sunny Delight Beverages Co. is one of the fastest growing, leading producers of juice-based drinks in North America.  It is dedicated to helping moms improve the vitality of their families by creating and marketing more wholesome beverages. The company's brands include SunnyD, Fruit Simple fruit smoothies, Fruit2O flavored waters, Bossa Nova "superfruit" beverages, Veryfine 100% juices and juice drinks and Elations dietary Supplement for joint health.  All SDBC plants have achieved zero waste to landfills.

SOURCE Sunny Delight Beverages Co.