Date	Cans	LBS
11/30/2023	28,000	800
12/31/2023	12,600	360
01/31/2024	14,000	400
03/31/2024	47,600	1,360
04/30/2024	22,190	634
05/16/2024	39,200	1,120
11/15/2024	18,550	530
01/14/2025	19,600	560
03/07/2025	15,050	430
04/21/2025	45,465	1,299
04/30/2025	34,790	994
Total	296,045	7,487

Yankeetown Elementary made the news!

Local elementary school pitches in for nationwide recycling contest

by: Ben Walls, Seth Austin

Posted: Feb 20, 2024 / 09:53 PM CST

Updated: Feb 20, 2024 / 09:53 PM CST

WARRICK COUNTY, Ind. (WEHT) – Just off Highway 66 in Warrick County, you’ll find that tiny Yankeetown Elementary School is doing some big things. The school and its Environmental Club are participating in the nationwide Million Cans Recycling Contest to recycle a million cans across eight schools in America.

Yankeetown is home to around 300 students, and you can thank a handful of the students in the Environmental Club for collecting 54,000 cans in Yankeetown alone. They say they noticed a lot of trash scattered around, so now they’re working to make a difference.

“If we don’t keep the ground clean,” said Kendall Gray, a 4th grade student, “then we won’t have food and clean water for us to drink and eat. So it’s really important that we recycle and do not litter.”

Every one of those cans is taken to SA Recycling in Owensboro, where the cans are cleaned and sent to an aluminum smelter. Kaiser Aluminum has also partnered with the school, who are collecting cans for them on site. We’re told Myriad Brewing has donated cans as well.

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Once the contest is over, the winning school receives cash prizes. But the students at Yankeetown are participating in the contest for a different purpose:

“The main purpose is to try to take care of our environment and keep that stuff out of the landfill,” says Yankeetown Environmental Club Sponsor Taunya Kirsch. “Aluminum cans can be back on the shelf in 60 days if recycled and only 45% nationwide are getting recycled.”

Anyone who wants to help the school can drop off cans or donate the cans to SA Recycling in Owensboro and letting them know you’d like to donate on behalf of Yankeetown.

The contest continues until May 24.

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Yankeetown Elementary to receive $3,000 for part in Million Cans Recycling Contest

by: Zach McKnight

Posted: May 25, 2024 / 01:03 PM CDT

Updated: May 25, 2024 / 01:06 PM CDT

More than 1.3 million aluminum beverage cans collected overall across seven states

HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) – Yankeetown Elementary School in Newburgh will receive a $3,000 prize for their part in the first Million Cans Recycling Contest.

Officials state Yankeetown won 1st place for collecting the most cans per student participating.

Results showed 46 third grade students participated with 163,590 cans recycled, which averaged out to 3,556 cans for each student.

Can Manufactures Institute provided more than $12,000 in funding that schools received if they met certain challenges or targets during the competition.

Officials state this competition was student-focused and ran from October 15, 2023, to May 16, 2024. It challenged second and third grade students to see which school could recycle the most used aluminum beverage cans. Officials also state eight schools from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas collected more than 1.3 million cans.

Officials say schools were selected in communities where there are low recycling rates and no curbside recycling systems. That ensured the cans the schools collected likely would not have been otherwise recycled. Officials also say it proved the can-only model, leveraging the relatively high market value of used beverage cans, works where no or limited recycling exists.

“The Million Cans Recycling Contest surpassed its one-million-mark goal thanks to the efforts of students, teachers and parents at the participating elementary schools, as well as the support of each CMI aluminum beverage can sector member that was partnered with a participating school nearby one of its facilities,” said Scott Breen, CMI’s senior vice president of sustainability. “The Million Cans Recycling Contest demonstrates there is an effective way to actively engage young learners on recycling in a hands-on way while delivering valuable funding for their school.”

Officials explain schools that competed earned this funding from selling the used beverage cans to local scrap yards and can be used to support various educational activities and partnerships, further enriching learning experiences for students.

Officials also explain the contest diverted more than a million empty aluminum beverage cans away from landfills, and the metal from the used beverage cans once sold also is worth nearly $21,000 in value.

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What schools are saying

"Our school has really enjoyed participating in The Million Cans Recycling Contest. It was great having our students & community all bring in cans to recycle instead of throwing them in the trash can. Hopefully those will have a lasting impact & everyone remembers how easy & valuable it is to recycle.“ - Ms. Taunya Kirsch

4th grade teacher & Environmental Club sponsor