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Three SCCPSS schools have been declared winners in the 2007 Chatham County Phone Book Recycling Drive.  Marshpoint Elementary collected nearly 34 pounds per student recovered and will receive a $100 award, May Howard Elementary collected a little over 26 pounds and will receive a $50 award and Oglethorpe Academy rounds out the top three with a little over 13 pounds per student and will receive a $25 award.

Port Wentworth, Southwest and Ellis Elementary earned honorable mentions in the competition.  In all, students collected a whopping 52 tons which is equivalent to about two-and-a-half truckloads of paper!

Students had about two months to bring in old phone books and drop them off at their schools and other designated locations around the Savannah-Chatham County area.  PTA members helped to organize collection efforts focused around one-week in which a collection bin was housed at their particular school.

Each participating student will receive a pencil made from recycled paper and all students that brought in five or more will get a coupon for free fries or a cookie from participating McDonald’s restaurants.  The special incentive awards will be presented to each of the top three schools at their next PTA meeting. 

The recovery effort saved the community as a whole nearly $4000 savings in charges they would have incurred to process the recycling material through the local incinerator waste-to-energy plant.  The effort will also bring a collective $1,000 in commodity value payments to various SCCPSS PTAs.

The recycling drive was sponsored by Keep Savannah Beautiful and The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System with corporate sponsorship from McDonald’s, SP Recycling and Georgia Pacific Corporation.  For a complete list of results, click here.