Rallying kids around plastic bottle recycling

Getting children started early with anything worthwhile helps point them in the right direction and sparks what could be a lifelong interest. So it makes perfect sense when that “anything”  involves a nationwide program for awareness of and active participation in recycling.

MDR (Shelton, CT), a division of Dun & Bradstreet, and PepsiCo (Purchase, NY) in mid-December announced gold honors in the 2017 MarCom Awards for PepsiCo Recycle Rally, a free nationwide program that directly benefits K-12 schools and students. The international competition is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

Launched in 2010, PepsiCo Recycle Rally encourages K-12 students to become environmental leaders by providing valuable incentives and resources to help make recycling easy, fun and rewarding in schools across the country. As one of PepsiCo’s longest running recycling initiatives, more than 5,400 schools have participated in the recycling effort with over 109 million plastic bottles and aluminum cans recycled to date, and 1 million in prizes and rewards have been awarded to hundreds of schools through recycling contests and promotions.

“This year’s engagement and sign-up numbers are incredible, and we are honored to receive this recognition for the PepsiCo Recycle Rally,” said Tom Mooradian, manager of environmental sustainability, PepsiCo. “We are thrilled to reach more and more students every year with important environmental messages and to encourage them to be recycling leaders in their communities.”

PepsiCo Recycle Rally, in partnership with MDR, an education marketing agency and school data expert, nominated the initiative in the Corporate Social Responsibility category of the Communications/Public Relations track of the award program for its engaging and successful digital media campaign during the 2016-2017 school year. Leveraging WeAreTeachers, MDR’s online educator community with nearly 2 million Facebook followers, the campaign featured sponsored articles, free printable classroom posters, free lessons and activities to teach kids about recycling, a web portal to track each schools’ recycling progress and a contest.

Aiming to double program sign-ups with new schools and activate registered schools that have not yet recycled, the campaign yielded phenomenal results including kicking off the school year with more than a 50 percent increase in total registered schools.

“At MDR, we are committed to partnering with top companies, such as PepsiCo, to help them deepen their connection with educators around the country,” said Kristina James, director of marketing, MDR. “We congratulate them for earning this recognition for their initiative and continuously encouraging students to be environmental leaders.”

Click here to read more about the PepsiCo Recycle Rally.