Land O’ Lakes, FL – (November 16, 2017) – Fifteen schools participated in Pasco County Schools’ A Bag’s Life plastic bag recycling challenge, but Odessa Elementary School emerged as the clear victor when the contest closed Wednesday, Nov. 15, in honor of America Recycles Day.
Odessa Elementary School ran away with first place after amassing more than 2,494 pounds of plastics bags. Gulf Trace Elementary School collected 823 pounds of bags and Bexley Elementary School collected 725 pounds of bags in a close battle for second place. Odessa Elementary School also collected the most bags per capita with more than three pounds per student. A Bag’s Life visits different school districts throughout the country each year and challenges elementary schools to recycle as many plastic bags as possible.
For winning A Bag’s Life, Odessa Elementary School will receive a bench made of recycled plastic bags from contest-sponsor Trex during a closing celebration. The presentation is at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 4 at Odessa Elementary School, 12810 Interlaken Road in New Port Richey.
In addition to the main contest, A Bag’s Life included two other challenges — a race to collect the most plastic bags by Halloween and an art contest that challenged schools to design their plastic bag collection boxes. Odessa and Gulf Trace elementary schools each won a $100 Walmart gift card for collecting the most bags by Halloween. Lacoochee Elementary School won first place in the box design contest, while Odessa Elementary School took second place; Gulf Trace Elementary School took third place; and Lake Myrtle Elementary School took fourth place. Each of the top three schools will receive a $100 Walmart gift card.
Anclote, Chasco, Double Branch, Denham Oaks, New River, Oakstead, Rodney B. Cox, San Antonio, Sand Pine, and Watergrass elementary schools also participated in the three-month-long contest. Combined, the 15 participating schools collected almost three tons of plastic bags, or more than 300,000 individual bags.
To see the monthly count of bags collected by school, click here. To see the winning box design, click here.
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