Participate in a national recycling video and poster contest sponsored by The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), and JASON Learning!
Your Challenge
For this challenge, create a poster or video that identifies a specific item, object, or landmark in your local community, your state, or the U.S. that is made with recycled materials, and tell the story of that item. Use your creativity to show us how America is Made With Recycled Materials, and how recycled materials are essential to American infrastructure, manufacturing, and innovation.
Each grade level will have their own prompt to follow. See your prompt below!
Grades K-5:
Look around your home, school, or neighborhood and find something made from recycled metal, glass, or paper. Create a PSA telling the story of that recycled material and explain why recycling it mattered.
K-5 Rubric
Grades 6-8:
Research a building, bridge, park, or public space in your community that was built using recycled materials. Create a PSA that tells the story of this item or landmark — what it’s made of, how recycled materials were used, and why that matters for your community.
6-8 Rubric
Grades 9-12:
Research recycled materials or landmarks made of recycled materials in the United States. Create a PSA that identifies a specific item or landmark, tells its story, and makes the case for why recycled materials are essential to American manufacturing, infrastructure, and innovation.
9-12 Rubric
The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) and its members work to ensure that their work supports the worldwide economy and keeps materials from becoming waste. For 250 years, recycled materials have helped support American manufacturing, infrastructure, and innovation. Recycled materials help create the buildings, vehicles, and products that you rely on every day.
2026 marks 250 years since America declared its independence, a huge milestone for our country! And here’s something you might not know: recycled materials have been part of building America this whole time. The steel, aluminum, copper, and glass we recycle today get a second life as the bridges we drive over, the skyscrapers that shape our skylines, and the everyday things we use. That’s what “America Is Made With Recycled Materials” is all about. This contest is your chance to find a piece of that story right where you live; a landmark, a building, even something small, like a recycled item in your school, house, or community, and show everyone how recycling has quietly helped build the America we see around us for 250 years and counting.
For inspiration, see how ReMA told this story about the Gordie Howe International Bridge:
Strong infrastructure starts with strong materials. Across North America, recycled steel, aluminum, copper, and other recovered materials help build bridges that connect communities and support commerce. The Gordie Howe International Bridge, connecting the United States and Canada, incorporates nearly 5,000 tons of recycled steel rebar in each of its two towers. Watch the video.
ReMA has told a similar story about One World Trade Center: recycled glass, steel, and other recovered materials helped rebuild one of America’s most iconic landmarks. From our nation’s proudest achievements to the structures that define our cities, recycled materials have long been part of the American story. Watch the video.
America’s legacy: built with recycled materials.
Now it’s your turn to get creative...
Here are some guidelines to help you get started!
- Follow the project brief for your grade level: Create a PSA that follows the outline in your grade-level specific prompt.
- Meet the contest criteria: Your poster or video should:
- Identify a specific item, object, or landmark made with recycled materials and explain what it is made of.
- Tell the story of that item: where it’s located, and how recycled materials were used to create it.
- Tie in how the recycled material, object, or landmark supports American infrastructure, manufacturing, and sustainability.
- Create messaging in the form of a digital poster or video that is no longer than one minute and informs and excites your viewers about recycled materials or landmarks in America.
- Imagery: Include pictures or visual representations of the recycled materials, landmark, or item, including how it relates to infrastructure and manufacturing in the United States.
- Title: Display “America is Made of Recycled Materials” clearly on your video or digital poster submission.
- Be innovative! Think creatively!
You Could Win a Personal Event!
The grand prize-winning students of the Youth Recycling Contest, along with their parent/guardian and classroom educator, will earn a special awards ceremony at your school presented by ReMA and JASON. Winners will also have a special meal hosted by ReMA for the winning student, teacher, and families.
Grand prize winners will also receive a $250 gift card for both the winner and their teacher. The video and poster grand champions will receive their awards as well as have their winning submissions shown to thousands of recyclers from around the world during the 2027 ReMA National Convention.
The four contest finalists and their classroom educators will each receive a gift card of $100.
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. Register below!
*Please note: all students under the age of 18 must register for this event with an adult (family member, teacher, parent, guardian).
Statewide Contests
Students from either Connecticut or South Carolina who enter the national contest will automatically be entered into a separate contest for just Connecticut or South Carolina students, featuring a round of judging by local recycling experts in your state. If chosen as a winner for your state-specific contest, separate prizes will be given.
To note: You may be selected as a winner in both the nationwide and the state-specific contests. They have separate judging processes.
All students whose submissions are entered in the Connecticut and South Carolina state contests will receive additional certifications for participation.
Check out these helpful ReMA resources!
Guiding Questions:
Use these questions to guide the creation of your PSA:
- What object, building, landmark, or product did you choose that is made with recycled materials?
- What recycled materials were used to make it, and where did those materials come from?
- How do people benefit from this object, building, or landmark?
- Why was using recycled materials important for creating it?
- What environmental impact did you see from using recycled materials in this object, building, landmark, or product?
- How does your example show that “America is Made with Recycled Materials”?
Helpful Vocabulary:
- Recycling: The series of activities during which obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus, or incidentally produced materials are processed into specification-grade commodities, and consumed as raw-material feedstock, in lieu of virgin materials, in the manufacture of new products. The series of activities that make up recycling may include collection, processing, and/or brokering, and shall result in subsequent consumption by a materials manufacturer.
- Recycled Materials: Material that was initially obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus, or incidentally produced and that has been processed into a specification-grade commodity for use in materials manufacturing.
- Processing: Any mechanical, manual, or other method that transforms a recyclable material into a specification-grade commodity. Processing is often multi-step, with different steps at different locations.
- Infrastructure: Structures like bridges, roads, buildings, and public spaces that help communities function.
- Manufacturing: The process of making products from materials.
- Innovation: New ideas, technologies, or ways of solving problems.
- Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- Steel: A common recycled material used in buildings, bridges, and vehicles.
- Aluminum: A lightweight metal that can be recycled repeatedly.
- Landmark: An important building, structure, or place that people recognize.
Important Contest Documents
** Use these documents to help you create your submissions,
including instructions on how to submit and poster and video requirements.
A Note on AI Usage
The use of AI tools is cautioned, as it can lead to copyright violations and plagiarism. All work must be created by the submitting students. Your submission should not be entirely AI-generated or contain an overwhelming amount of AI-generated elements or text. This work should be entirely student-created.
If you’ve made something with AI, it will stand out less than if you created it.
Submit Your Entry Below!
Submissions are due by Friday, December 11, by 11:59 pm ET.
All participants will be notified of their contest standing in February 2027.
All certificates will be sent to educators in April 2027.
SUBMIT HERE
If you have any questions, please email vcross@jason.org for assistance.
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.
