The submission window has closed. Winners will be notified end of May/early June. Teachers will receive student certificates and winners will be announced to the public on June 16, 2025.

If you have any questions, please email vcross@jason.org for assistance.

Calling all K-12 Youth in South Carolina!

Participate in a national recycling poster contest specifically for South Carolina students sponsored by ReMA, The Recycled Materials Association, JASON Learning, and SCASA, the South Carolina Association of School Administrators!

Your Challenge

Your challenge is to create an advertisement for these three principles around recycling. You must provide examples you learned from your research to explain how recycling is building opportunities for each of these terms: Sustainable, Resilient, and Essential.

The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) and its members work to ensure that their work supports the worldwide economy and keeps materials from becoming waste.  

The recycled materials industry is Sustainable – which helps protect the environment. It is Resilient – providing materials that strengthen the economy. It is also Essential – to ensure the things we need are there to improve everyday life.

Now it’s your turn get creative...

Here are some guidelines to help you get started!

  • Follow the project brief: Create messaging to explain the importance of recycling using the three principles in the ReMA tagline:
    • Sustainable: It protects the environment.
    • Resilient: It provides materials to help build the economy.
    • Essential: It provides materials that help improve our everyday lives.
  • Meet the contest criteria: Your poster should:
    • Inform and excite viewers about the possibilities of recycling.
    • Explain how recycling helps protect planet Earth.
    • Share how recycling supports building our economy.
    • Highlight how recycling can help provide materials that make our lives better.
  • Research the recycled materials industry through the lens of the ReMA principles of Sustainable, Resilient, and Essential.
  • Create messaging in the form of a digital poster that informs and excites your viewers about the possibilities for recycling!
  • Imagery: Include pictures or visual representations of the three ReMA recycling principles!
  • Title: Display “Sustainable. Resilient. Essential” clearly on your digital poster submission. 
  • Be innovative!  Think creatively!

You Could Win an Incredible Experience!

The grand prize-winning student team of the South Carolina Youth Recycling Contest will receive a $500 award, along with an additional $500 awarded to their teacher. The winning students will also receive a banner to display in their schools. The winning poster will be prominently displayed in the SCASA building, with an official unveiling ceremony attended by the student, their parents, teacher, principal, and superintendent. The winners will also be announced at the Summer i3 Conference.

These awards are proudly sponsored by SCASA, ReMA and JASON Learning.

Pictured to the right are the winners of the 2023-24 contest in Las Vegas, NV!

Recycling Contest Ask-an-Expert

LIVE Webinars

Join experts from ReMA, the trade association representing the recycling industry, and JASON Learning to hear about this year’s recycling contest! This event is open to all K-12 students, teachers, and family members. It is an opportunity to hear from experts in the recycling industry, receive helpful tips and strategies for submitting a successful entry, and ask questions. This event is also great for students who are undecided about entering and wish to learn more.

*Please note: all students under the age of 18 must register for this event with an adult (family member, teacher, parent, guardian).

Check out these helpful ReMA resources!

Important Note! This contest limits the definition and impact of recycling to products constructed from these commodities: Metal, Fiber (Paper & Cardboard), Plastics, Glass, Tires, and Electronics. You can learn more about each commodity below.

Helpful Vocabulary:

  • Recyclability: The characteristic of a product, packaging, or associated component that can be collected, processed, and put back into use as raw materials or products.
  • Product: An item or substance that is manufactured (made) to sell.
  • Commodity:  A raw material that is used to make a product. Products might be made from more than one material or commodity. Examples are glass, metal, paper, textiles, electronics . . . etc.
  • Sustainability: The needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
  • Resilient: Capable of regaining its original shape or position after bending, stretching, compression, or other deformation.
  • Essential: To be absolutely necessary; extremely important.

Learn more about each commodity for your project:

Important Contest Documents

** Download the Rules & Guidelines and the Help Guide and Rubric for
important details and instructions about submitting your entry!

Meet Your Judges

BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC

Bruce Myers

PI-40, Environmental Compliance Operational Lead

With 15 years of experience in the Environmental/Waste industry, I currently serve as the Operational Lead for Environmental Compliance at Plant Spartanburg, where I have been for the past 6 years. In this role, I oversee compliance across air, waste, and water domains, ensuring adherence to regulations such as RCRA, DOT, IATA, and HAZWOPER. I support the continuous improvement of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and coordinate the development of environmental targets with management input. My responsibilities include obtaining necessary permits, maintaining accurate compliance records, investigating complaints, and monitoring new regulations to enhance performance and cost efficiency.
Commercial Metals Company (CMC)

Summer Reid

Marketing Manager

CMC is an epic journey that spans more than a century. It’s an extraordinary tale of scrap yards and steel mills, hardworking employees and visionary leaders, steady progress and dramatic breakthroughs. Most of all, it’s a shining example of how remaining true to a core set of abiding principles — providing superior customer service, acting with integrity, dedicating ourselves to safety, delivering outstanding shareholder value, and serving the communities in which we operate, among others — can provide the foundation for remarkable success. From a single scrap yard in Dallas, Texas, CMC has grown into a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of facilities and more than 10,000 employees serving our valued customers around the world. Recycling is the future. It’s also our history. We have the capacity to process and ship nearly 5 million tons of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap annually. We buy, process, sell and manage scrap in collaboration with our partners around the world. 19 billion pounds of scrap is kept from our landfills annually.

Check out our Recycling Activities Collection: Lessons and Resources for Grades K-12!

Designed in partnership with ReMA, the trade association representing the recycling industry, students explore the benefits and challenges of sustainable recycling through a variety of activities ranging from physics and chemistry to engineering and human impacts while becoming informed citizens and careful consumers.