Nechako Valley Secondary School has won a top cash prize for recycling a huge number of beverage containers for the 2010 - 2011 school year.
More than 300 schools participated in Encorp’s BC School Recycling Program which ensured four million beverage containers were recycled.
Encorp Pacific (Canada) provided all the participating schools with free resources to help make recycling easier and more convenient. As well as offering the cash prize incentive, schools also received a deposit refund for each container collected.
NVSS was one of five high schools in the province to win the top cash prize of $750. Students at the high school recycled 88,098 beverage containers during the last school year and received a deposit return of $5,879.30.
Other schools in the province that won the top cash prize included Island Oak High School in Duncan where 38,557 containers were recycled, Tumbler Ridge Secondary in Tumbler Ridge who collected 55,204 containers, Robert Bateman Secondary in Abbotsford recycled 69,747 and Yale Secondary in Abbotsford recycled a total of 224,704 beverage containers.
Since the program started in 2000, about 37 million containers have been recycled, and Encorp has refunded more than $2.2 million in deposit refunds to participating B.C. schools.
“Beverage container recycling is a great way for schools to raise money for programs and activities such as field trips and luncheons and for items like computer & sports equipment. The possibilities are endless!” said Sandy Sigmund of Encorp Pacific in a press release.
Sigmund also mentioned the other rewards of recycling besides the refund.
“By recycling beverage containers, you contributed to the reduction of about 135,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent being released into British Columbia’s atmosphere. That’s like taking 39,000 cars of B.C. roads or lighting 63,000 homes for a year,” said Sigmund.