Local third graders celebrated America Recycles Day, held on Nov. 15, by participating in a recycling poster contest hosted by Concord General Services. Concord General Services manages trash and recycling services for the community and has successfully reduced trash tonnage by 40 percent in Concord since the introduction of Pay-As- You-Throw trash bags in 2009.
Unit-based pricing methods, such as pay-as- you-throw, have proved to reduce trash volumes and increase recycling rates. Single-stream recycling is also an initiative by the city of Concord to encourage recycling by removing the hassle of sorting.
The objective for the recycling poster contest was to encourage third-grade students to think about and make a commitment to recycling. All poster submissions creatively demonstrated recycling initiatives. The winning poster was submitted by Cortlyn Johnson from Ms. Arnold’s class at Broken Ground School. The poster solely focused on paper as a recyclable item with a clear call-to-action message to: “Make sure you recycle your paper every day.”
The winning poster is currently on display at the Concord Public Library for the next couple of weeks, and the entire class won a pizza party as a prize incentive. The city of Concord’s solid waste manager, Adam Clark, delivered the pizza to the class and led the students in a brief discussion about recycling.
View pictures and poster submissions from Ms. Arnold’s class by visiting Concord General Services’ Facebook page at facebook.com/ConcordNHGS.
America Recycles Day is a nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. Recycling in Concord has increased by 115 percent over the last nine years. All efforts for the community to minimize waste and increase recycling are greatly appreciated by the city.
Angelina Zulkic
