by Anna Palazij
Yesterday, on behalf of the Dream Machine Recycle Rally, I had the privilege to present the program’s first grand prize, a $100,000 Dream Green School Makeover, to St. Pascal School of Chicago, Illinois. The school recycled more than 2,286 plastic bottles and aluminum cans—the most per student of all eligible participants. St. Pascal plans to use the funds to build an energy-efficient computer lab powered by solar energy, along with a few smaller environmentally-focused projects. We’re thrilled to help St. Pascal along its journey of greening the school and congratulate them on their achievement!
It is so exciting to be a part of this first year of the Dream Machine Recycle Rally. The Dream Machine Recycle Rally –a pillar of the broader Dream Machine program – is a nationwide school recycling program designed to raise awareness among students, grades K-12, about the importance of recycling, and encourage them to make recycling part of their everyday lives. The program is not only rewarding for the planet, but schools are also earning points to be used toward rewards for every bottle and can they recycle. In addition, for all the bottles and cans recycled through the program – the broader Dream Machine program and the Dream Machine Recycle Rally – PepsiCo will provide support to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), a national program offering free education in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities.
We’ve already reached nearly 160,000 students in 32 states across the country, helping to divert more than 4.5 million beverage containers from landfills. The students who participated in this year’s program have made a tremendous impact on their schools, families and communities.
While in Chicago, I heard firsthand from people who have never recycled before, but are now vigilant about ensuring cans, bottles and more are recycled. Similarly, second graders at Mountain View Elementary in Colorado were thrilled when they had the chance to show me their self-made videos all about recycling. These school stories, which we continue to gather from the Dream Machine Recycle Rally, demonstrate how small behavioral shifts can amount to a big difference for our planet. Did you know that if every household in the U.S. recycled just three more plastic bottles a month, we could divert more than 23 million pounds of plastic from our landfill?
We’re continuing to see great enthusiasm from schools like St. Pascal School, and are looking forward to the next school year –we’ll be expanding our rewards and contest platforms so that more schools have even more opportunities to earn rewards and prizes. We hope you’ll join us in spreading the word about how schools in your community can make a real difference for the planet, post-9/11 disabled U.S. veterans, and their students. Visit DreamMachineRecycleRally.com for the latest program news and information or to have your school administrator apply.
