The recycling team at Menallen Elementary School takes its task seriously because there is a lot at stake. There’s money on the line, a playground that needs funded and a world that needs saved. The seven-member team of fifth- and sixth-graders makes its rounds at the start of the school day twice a week to round up recyclable items collected in each classroom. The school is in competition mode from September to April, going up against a hundred other schools from across the nation in the PepsiCo Recycle Rally to collect the most plastic and aluminum containers. Big money is up for grabs for the top 25 schools. Recycling bins can be found in every classroom at Menallen, in the cafeteria, in the hallway, in the teachers’ lounge. Students know to recycle their containers at breakfast and lunch. “It’s ingrained in the students here. We have them trained where they just do it,” said media specialist Christa Sabatula, who with the help of her mother, Janet Gallagher, a retired Laurel Highlands teacher and volunteer at Menallen, has headed the program since its inception by former school principal Paula Work. The school has operated a recycling program and competed for prizes annually since 2011, said Sabatula, starting with a competition run by New Jersey recycling company TerraCycle, which required students to collect various waste products to be recycled. Under PepsiCo Recycling’s contest, the school competes in the Challenge League, collecting plastics No. 1 and No. 2, aluminum and tin and self-reporting the collected weight. The school with the highest recycling total over the course of the year wins a grand prize of $50,000, with each subsequent school through 25th place earning an incremental dollar amount down to $1,000. As of Feb. 20, Menallen ranked No. 15 with approximately 192,000 containers recycled this school year. In the past, the school has placed as high as 14th, winning $2,000 in 2017. The awards the school earns through its recycling efforts are funneled into improvements to its playground to expand the play area and ensure handicapped accessibility for special-needs students. But Sabatula said the program began at the school not to win money, but simply to reduce waste. Being rewarded for their efforts has been a perk. “There’s no real money coming in unless you win,” said Sabatula. “If you don’t win, you’re still recycling. You’re still doing something good. That’s the point. It helps the environment, and it teaches the kids a lesson.” The recycling program is especially beneficial to those students who participate on the recycling team, said Sabatula, because it not only makes them environmentally conscious, but it also teaches them about job responsibilities. “The kids apply for this job. They have to fill out a job application. They need a resume and have to go through an interview process. Once they get the job, they have to maintain good grades,” she said. Menallen has teamed with Goodwill Industries to haul away the recyclables every Friday to its Fayette Recycling Center in Uniontown, which diverts aluminum cans, tin cans, glass, plastic, cardboard, newspaper and high-grade office paper from going to the landfill. Collection became so large that the school was routinely filling the six containers reserved for recycling, prompting Menallen Township last school year to lend the school a dumpster to keep on the premises to store recyclables. A second dumpster was added this school year to keep up with collection efforts. Teachers, staff, parents and community members can drop off their recyclables at a collection area located outside the school. “The goal is to reach a couple more people every year,” said Sabatula.