Over 200,000 Plastic Bags Collected in School Contest

“Don’t forget your bags,” first-grader Tanner Doyle advises his mother, reminding her to take canvas bags to the grocery store so the family will not have to bring groceries home in plastic bags.

The Kids for Canvas Campaign, sponsored by the City of Phoenix, Arizona Food Marketing Alliance and the Phoenix Suns has helped create a new generation of reduce-and-recyclers.

The campaign was launched with a plastic bag collecting contest between 24 schools, primarily elementary, throughout the Phoenix area, said Terry Gellenbeck of the city’s Public Works Department.

The winning school, Acacia Elementary, brought in 42,000 plastic bags in a two-week period.

“Never in a million years did we think our little school would win the big stuff,” Kira Alexander, Office Manager, said. Parents and teachers were extremely supportive, she said. The first time the City of Phoenix representatives came to pick up the bags, there were so many they couldn’t fit them all in their van.

“It was the funniest thing watching them trying to cram all those bags in the van,” Alexander said. “They even had to back up to close the doors…There was barely room for the passengers.”

Doyle said many of the children in her neighborhood were “tearing through their homes searching for bags.”

Between all the schools, over 200,000 plastic bags were collected, Gellenbeck said.

As the winning school, Acacia Elementary got a special pep rally with the Phoenix Suns gorilla. The kids loved it, Alexander said. Tanner had never seen the gorilla before and couldn’t stop talking about it, his mother Sarah Doyle said. But the kids weren’t the only ones pumped about the pep rally.

Former Suns star Alvin Adams was the host, so even the adults were excited, Alexander said.

Adams was “magnificent” and did a great job connecting with the kids, Gellenbeck said.

According to Gellenbeck, the campaign was an absolute success. Not only the children became more aware of recycling, but the parents as well.

“On my end, I didn’t realize how many plastic bags I was still acquiring, even though I often use canvas,” Doyle said. “I also hadn’t thought of some of the bags you can take in, like toilet paper bags. For me as a parent, it was a learning experience.”

Alexander said many parents told her they did not know plastic bags couldn’t be put in a regular recycling bin.

The recycling spirit has “escalated” at Acacia, she said. In response, the school just purchased a large paper recycling bin.

The children’s increased awareness about recycling is the most exciting result of the campaign. In the words of little Tanner, “For as much as we shop, you would think [we] would know how to do it better.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 2:07 pmand is filed under Program News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Over 200,000 Plastic Bags Collected in School Contest”

1. John Says:
   June 18th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

   Great program