Community Involvement
Trex Recycling Challenge
Doing our part to keep plastic film out of the landfills and local waterways!
What does that mean you ask?? That is how much plastic Moscow Charter School students have weighed and recycled, with the help of our families and community members, through the Trex Recycling Challenge since the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year!
"Trex® was founded on the premise that ingenuity can help extract value from what was once seen as waste. In creating this turnkey program for schools, we provide students with a better understanding and appreciation for the importance of recycling by demonstrating how small, everyday efforts can translate into a tangible product and successful business."
Bryan Fairbanks, President and CEO of Trex®
Through the Trex Recycling Challenge schools compete against other schools in their category to collect the most plastic film. A school volunteer then weighs and keeps record of the amount of film that is recycled each month. The weight is recorded monthly with Trex. The recycled film is then taken to a participating retailer each month. Thank you Safeway, Winco and the Moscow Recycle Center for being our plastic film recycling retail partners! The winners, who are announced on Earth Day, are awarded a bench made out of the Trex material that is created from this recycled plastic film.
Our Journey and Impact on the Community
During the 2018-2019 school year, Ms. Bonzo and our 4th grade class began working with the Trex Recycling Program, via the Challenge, in an effort to keep plastic film out of our landfills and waterways. Seeing a need to do their part to help the Moscow community become more aware of the impact this plastic film has on our community, they established a collection program here at MCS and reached to our community asking them to drop their plastic film #2 and #4 at our school.
They got the word out to all our students and families first, and then reached out to the community via a newspaper article and the plastic film began trickling in. Competing against 18 other schools in the Northwest Region, we came in just shy of winning the bench that year. The winning school had recycled 1254 lbs and MCS had recycled 1201 lbs. We received a Trex planter box for our efforts!
Knowing that we had just started to create awareness and make an impact on recycling this plastic film, our 4th grade teacher Ms. Bonzo decided she would continue to enroll our school in the Trex Challenge the next year. Little did we know how much momentum this would gain within our community!
Shortly after the beginning of the school year, we had received so much interest in dropping off plastic film that we were having trouble managing it. Ms. Bonzo reached out to our local Moscow Recycle Center to see if we could expand this program beyond our doors for the community and they were able to begin collecting plastic film on the first Saturday of the month for the Trex Program in 2020.
In the 2019-2020 school year we ended up winning the Trex Challenge with a whopping 6315lbs of recycled plastic film! On top of that the community recycled 24,000 lbs through the Moscow Recycle Center.
Aware of the ability to recycle this plastic film has yielded an increase in the number of businesses in our area now participating in recycling plastic film and doing their part to keep it out of landfills and waterways. MCS is proud of the awareness that we created regarding the importance of recycling plastic film and we continue to do our part to make an impact on the future of our community. We enroll in the Trex Recycling Challenge annually. Our students are engaged in this program and enjoy the challenge and raising awareness!
Recycle 2 Win Challenge
The Recycle 2 Win challenge will soon be upon us!! Last year, the total weight of 7,785 lbs (our best yet) earned us 2nd place in the challenge. We are shooting for 1st place again this year and have set a goal of 10,000lbs! Please bring in your plastic film and help us reach this goal and win the competition!!
Here is a link to the challenge website:
Highlights from 2022:
The plastic film above is what we are looking for. These items will help us with the challenge!! They can be dropped during school hours at 1723 E F Street to be added to our weight for the competition....or you can always drop it off the first Saturday of the month at the Moscow Recycle Center and help keep plastic film out of our landfills and waterways!
Join us! Find out how you can enter the challenge or learn more about the program:
Check out this link!!
or
Email Ms. Bonzo:
MCS Recycling Highlights:
2022-2023: We held pretty steady with our annual recycling total for the school year ending at 9,309 total pounds! Thank you students and families for keeping plastic film recycling a priority! We came in 2nd place in the Trex Recycle 2 Win Challenge this year with a total of 7,785lbs.
2021-2022: Thank you students and families for making this the best year yet! We ended the competition with a total of 7,735lbs of recycled plastic film! We won first place in the Trex Challenge as well as the Recycle 2 Win challenge! Just because the competitions have stopped doesn't mean the recycling does...keep bringing in that plastic film! We recycled 9,490 for the school year!!
2020-2021: We came in 1st place against even more participating schools in the Northwest Region. We recycled 3,640 lbs and received a Trex Bench!
2019-2020: We came in 1st place competing against 23 schools in the Northwest region. We recycled 6,315 lbs and received a Trex bench! We also helped establish the first Saturday of the month collection program through the Moscow Recycle Center for the community!
2018-2019: We came in second competing against 18 schools in the Northwest region. We recycled 1201lbs and received a Trex planter box!
Moscow Recycling Center Totals:
2020: The Moscow community recycled approximately 25,000lbs!
2021: The Moscow community recycled approximately 29,000lbs! Way to go, we beat last year!
2022: The Moscow community recycled 28,300lbs! Nice job!!
2023: The Moscow community has recycled 6,960lbs so far this year!
