RWS to give away more than 1,700 pumpkins to area elementary schools to promote recycling

PORTLAND -- Regional Waste Systems, a non-profit corporation that recycles and converts trash to energy for 29 cities and towns in southern Maine, has launched its annual "A Great Pumpkin Giveaway" program which provides more than 1,700 pumpkins to elementary schools in member towns and cities.

The pumpkin giveaway is an annual program organized by RWS in an effort to promote composting education and recycling in the schools, according to Carol Fritz, chair of the RWS Recycling Committee.

Schools interested in receiving pumpkins can call Betty Humphries at RWS, 773-6465, by Friday, October 20, to reserve and arrange for pick up of the pumpkins the following week.

"We give the pumpkins to the schools as part of our emphasis on composting and recycling education," said Eric Root, director of materials recovery at RWS. "We support education that shows citizens, businesses and organizations why it's important to make less trash and recycle and compost more at home.

The Recycling Committee points out that this program can be used to meet part of Maine Learning Results, particularly the sections on Ecology and Implications of Science and Technology.

Regional Waste Systems, Inc. is a non-profit, quasi-municipal waste management corporation owned and controlled by the member municipalities it serves in Cumberland, York, Oxford, Sagadahoc and Androscoggin counties. It is governed by a 28-member board made up of representatives of those 29 towns and cities. The waste from each of the municipalities is transported to the facility located on outer Congress Street in Portland and recycled or incinerated to create electricity. RWS has an extensive composting and recycling program. More than 80 recycling drop off containers and three municipal curbside recycling collection programs deliver recyclables to its materials recovery plant.

RWS member towns are Baldwin, Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Durham, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hiram, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, Naples, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Parsonsfield, Phippsburg, Porter, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, South Portland, Standish, Waterboro, Windham and Yarmouth.

# # #
Note to Teachers:

The background for the RWS pumpkin giveaway is that RWS's contract residuals operator, the L. R. Higgins Co., has grown these pumpkins in a 5 acre field at the RWS ashfill/balefill. That field receives the compost they make for us from leaves and grass clippings delivered to RWS as part of our member municipal yard waste collection programs. The compost is a soil amendment.

The pumpkins are the tangible end product of municipal compost programs. For us, they symbolize the role of composting in an efficient integrated solid waste management program. We hope that the pumpkins themselves, together with the attached lesson materials, will be used in elementary school lessons aimed at meeting the Maine Learning Results criteria, particularly those related to sections on Ecology and Implications of Science and Technology. Please feel free to call us with any questions.