Success StoryExpressive Arts Project Encourages Recycling



Expressive Arts Project Encourages Recycling

Author: Mary Beth Riley

Planning Unit: Lyon County CES

Major Program: Communications and Expressive Arts

Plan of Work: Empowering Youth to Reach Their Full Potential

Outcome: Initial Outcome



According to The World Counts website an average person throws away 4 pounds of trash every day and makes about 1.5 tons of solid waste a year. There are roughly 1,000 students in the Lyon County School district and using that data that would mean Lyon County students would make roughly 4,000 pounds of trash in a day. To encourage recycling, students had the opportunity to participate in the Trash Sculpture contest sponsored by Lyon County 4-H and the Regional Recycling Center. The contest was opened to students in kindergarten to 12th grade. Some of the guidelines for the contest was the sculpture had to be made from recycled materials, the sculpture had to be free standing, the sculpture had to have a useful purpose, and the sculpture had to be creative. For the contest on the school level there was 22 elementary school students that participated and 23 high school that participated. Each participant received a pencil made from recycled material courtesy of the Regional Recycling center. After the school level contest, the winners from each category had the opportunity to compete at the regional level. A regional contest was held and out of the 9 participants that participated from Lyon County all 9 participants won on the regional level. An additional benefit of participating in the Trash Sculpture contest is the prize money that is donated from the Regional Recycling Center. There were 10 youth from Lyon County that won over a $1,000 from the Trash Sculpture Contest. One teacher from Lyon County also won $50 due to having many students participate in the contest. The Trash Sculpture contest is a great program for youth not only because of the prize money but because it encourages them to reuse trash that would otherwise be in the trash can. 






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