Here’s a look at the elementary student winners of the essay, limerick and poster contests on soil conservation, sponsored by the Douglas County Conservation District.

Essay winner: Madeline McCrary, Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center.

Limerick winner: Brad Shields, Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center; second place, Neil Dunn, Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center.

Poster winner: Hannah Moran, Quail Run School; second place, Madeline McCrary, Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center; third place, Michael Burton, Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center; honorable mentions, Maddie Woodard, Quail Run, and Meredith Morris, Quail Run.

Here’s Madeline McCrary’s winning essay:

“A Look At Recycling”

Recycling is an activity that anyone can do by taking materials that would just be thrown away and sorting them into different categories to be made into new products. There are three steps to recycling. Step one is collection and processing, step two is manufacturing and step three is purchasing recycled products.

There are four ways to collect recyclables: curbside, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs. Then the recyclables are bought and sold to be manufactured. Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are ready to be manufactured. There are things in our houses that contain recycled materials. Some of them are newspapers, paper towels, aluminum, plastic soft drink containers, and plastic laundry detergent bottles. Purchasing recycled products is the last step and is very important. By buying recycled products we help make the recycling process a success.

Here are some ideas I found on the internet to help reduce waste:

¢ To reduce waste, make less garbage.

¢ Buy only what you need. Rent, borrow, or share items.

¢ Sell or donate goods instead of throwing them out.

¢ Buy products that use little or no packaging.

¢ Buy reusable products such as re-chargeable batteries.

¢ Buy one general housecleaner rather than a variety of products.

¢ Give extra paints to theatre groups and extra cleaning or gardening supplies to neighbors.

Recycling isn’t just something we do at home. At school we can reduce, reuse and recycle too. Kids can bring lunches in plastic containers that can be washed and reused. In technology class we can reuse paper and buy paper that is made from recycled materials. Our school could raise money with a recycling drive. All the papers we could collect could be sold and the money used to buy things we need. It would also save trees.

I’ve learned that recycling isn’t really that hard and it takes a little effort to help clean up our country.