RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — Keeping aluminum cans out of landfills and collecting them to be recycled into new cans– that’s the mission for third grade students at one Jackson County elementary school as they take part in a national recycling competition.

The 2 Million Cans Recycling Contest got underway at Fairplain Elementary School in Ripley Thursday afternoon.

Fairplain is the only school in the state taking part in the competition being held across 18 schools around the U.S.

A leading global aluminum production company who has a plant in Ravenswood, Constellium is hosting the recycling competition that’s in partnership with the Can Manufacturers Institute and Recycling is Like Magic!, an organization aimed at making recycling fun and easy for kids.

The objective of the competition is simple for the students– collect as many aluminum beverage cans as possible.

Brian McCallie

President of Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC, Brian McCallie said the contest will not only help get the students at Fairplain more familiar with recycling, but it will also get them closer to acquiring something big for their school, as each participating school will get a sum of money off the collected cans.

“It will kind of do two things at once, teach the kids about recycling, get them engaged with the concept of recycling, and in the process, help them with some playground equipment,” McCallie said.

The school was chosen to take part in the contest because of their fundraising efforts in obtaining a new playground. The school’s fundraising goal is $17,000 to get the new playground, and McCallie said this contest will help a little towards meeting that goal.

McCallie said the nation has a long way to go in the recycling of aluminum cans. He said compared to other countries in the world, we’re vastly behind.

McCallie said this reason alone is why it’s important to start emphasizing the need to recycle and build awareness about it in people, and starting while they’re young is most beneficial.

“That’s when you want to start and get that message out there of how important it is to recycle and how meaningful it is to not put that can in the landfill, but you know, be able to turn it back into itself,” he said.

McCallie said recycling also has some other benefits besides improving the state of the environment.

He said that by not recycling, energy costs can become a lot more costly for the country. McCallie said energy and CO2 savings from recycling aluminum are substantially better than creating aluminum from primary metal and the smelting process route.

Again, McCallie said they want to start early with emphasizing this need and initiative.

“So, really get that information to the kids so they can start to make those choices, and it starts at home, but it also extends to events in the community and things like that,” he said.

McCallie said the overall goal between the nearly 20 schools participating in the competition is to collect 2 million cans, as the name of the contest implies.

The competition officially kicked off Thursday and will last through April 2025.

McCallie said throughout the process, Constellium will also host a book reading with the kids about recycling, talk to them about why it’s important, and conduct some STEM activities centered around it as well.

He said by making recycling fun and by providing an incentive for their efforts, it’s something kids can easily grasp.

“You know, that’s part of the goal is not just a boring message, but how do we make this fun, how do we engage the kids to bring their cans in and show that, hey, there’s a reward at the end of that, and it’s not just a cleaner, greener environment and less landfills, but in this particular case, you’ll get some pretty cool playground equipment,” said McCallie.

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