Building a greener future with year-long aluminium recycling competition in US schools

A national competition for collecting aluminium cans while learning about sustainability has sparked a hands-on approach to the environmental study regime of Logan County school students. The competition, which has successfully gathered over 2 million disposed cans, has been organised by Logan Aluminum in partnership with Lewisburg Elementary.

The initiative is all about recycling programmes in elementary schools, where recycling bins, educational signage, and pickup schedules are designated to return collected cans to Logan for recycling.

Students actively participated in the process, from sorting recyclables to attending awareness drives organised in school and the local community.

“We recognise that to meet the demand for aluminium in our growth industry and to protect and sustain our environment; Logan Aluminum needs to promote aluminium recycling at every level.  By raising awareness and providing tools to our children, we can recover this valuable resource,” voiced Laura Haury, Logan Aluminum Environmental Engineer.

Third-grade students from Lewisburg Elementary School compete in the “Million Cans Recycling Challenge”, inspired by the book The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans.

Laura added, “Aluminium is infinitely recyclable, and it’s our goal to keep every can out of the landfill, so bring your aluminium recycling to your local elementary school or back to Logan Aluminum.  It will be back on the shelves in 60 days as every can counts!”

Lewisburg is among the nine schools in eight states selected to compete in the year-long programme running through May 2024 to April 2025. In addition to money from the sale of the Used Beverage Cans (UBCs) to the scrap yard, Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) is contributing USD 12,000 in awards and bonuses, i.e. any partaking school that collects at least 20,000 UBCs will earn USD 500 bonus. The school that collects the most cans per student by the end of the year will receive USD 3,000. The runner-up and third-place schools will receive USD 1,000 and USD 500, respectively.