News
Students collect more than 27,500 phone books in Metro recycling contest.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Nearly 40 Tons of Waste Diverted From Trash and Area Landfills
Public elementary school students qualify as Metro recycling champions for their efforts in last month’s Phone Book Recycling Contest, sponsored by Public Works, Metro Beautification and Environment and AT&T.
Granbery Elementary School took the 1st place prize of $500 in the elementary school category by collecting 8,488 directories, the highest number collected by any of the 18 schools that participated. Joelton Elementary, which has the fewest number of students, recorded the highest per capita number of 3,933 directories and won the 2nd place prize of $300. In addition, Cockrill Elementary and Lakeview Design Elementary will share “Honorable Mention” prize awards for their extraordinary efforts to collect 3,454 and 2,077 phone books, respectively.
Hillsboro High School (741 directories) and Croft Middle School (4,054) each win a 1st place cash prize of $500 in their categories. Dupont-Hadley (2,080) will collect the $300 2nd place prize in the middle school category. (A complete list of winning schools and the number of phone books each one collected is attached.)
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of this effort and the overwhelming response from educators and parents who encouraged the school children of Nashville to participate and recycle,” said Billy Lynch, Metro Public Works director. “In particular, this campaign really helped boost recycling activities in Joelton and at our other community drop-off sites, which is a goal Public Works has been working hard to reach in the past year.”Tusculum students Mackenzie Thomas and Matthew Beech helped collect phone directories in Metro's contest in February. Both are in Becky Hulse's kindergarten class at Tusculum Elementary.
The Joelton student efforts in the phone book contest continued the success of the Joelton community drop-off, which has increased its recycling tonnage by 37 percent. “That is incredibly impressive, especially when you consider that the number of residents in the surrounding area is significantly lower than the areas around Metro’s other drop-off sites,” added Lynch.
Overall, a total of 27,756 phone directories were collected during “Phone Book Recycling Month” in February, sponsored by Metro and AT&T, its Community Recycling Partner, as a way to promote recycling in Davidson County. To increase participation, all Metro schools were invited to take part in a recycling contest to collect the phone books.
AT&T (formerly Bellsouth) began delivering 2007 “Real White Pages” to Metro households in mid-January, and provided $3,000 in prize money for the contest.
Metro’s eight community drop-offs were the designated collection sites where, on every Saturday in February, students and residents could bring old phone directories to volunteers who recorded the totals. The community groups who sponsor a Metro Recycle Drop-off Site will each receive $100 for hosting the Saturday collections.
| School Name | # of Phone books |
|---|---|
| Granbery Elementry | 8,488 |
| Croft Middle | 4,054 |
| Joelton Elementary | 3,933 |
| Cockrill Elem | 3,454 |
| Dupont-Hadley Middle | 2,080 |
| Lake View Design Elem | 2,077 |
| Hillsboro High School | 741 |
| Granbery Elementry | 8,488 |
| Subtotal A | 27,431 |
| Miscellaneous collections | # of Phone books |
| Other participating and non-participating schools | 2,681 |
| Drop-offs, non-designated | 248 |
| Subtotal B | 2,929 |
| Grand Total | 27,756 |
Croft Middle students formed a human chain to load their 4,054 directories into Public Works trucks waiting to haul them away for recycling.
