Features Editor

A couple of Troy youngsters will have an opportunity to win $200 United States savings bonds simply by using their imaginations and recyclable materials.

The Troy Recycling Center, the Friends of the Troy Public Library, Jerry Spurlock’s Iron and Metals and Mount Recycling of Montgomery are sponsoring a recycling contest for children 6-11 in an effort to promote recycling in Troy by calling attention to the items that can be recycled at the local center.

Bill Rice Sr., director of the Troy Recycling Center, spoke to a group of youngsters and their parents at the Troy Public Library Wednesday and brought along a REBA (Recycling By Americans) and a recycled pizza as examples of the two contests in which they may participate.

Those who want to enter the REBA

contest may create a critter, a crawler, a clown or a cowboy or anything their imaginations can conjure up as long as the REBA is made of only the recyclable materials accepted at the Troy Recycling Center.

Rice encouraged the young people to use their imaginations and let them run wild when creating REBA.

"If you make a REBA like this one I brought, you won’t win," Rice told the children. "You are going to have to be very creative and come up with a REBA that is really unusual."

Rice also brought two recycled pizzas he made. One of the pizzas was made of all the materials that the Troy Recycling Center accepts, including a glass bottle in the center.

"I put the glass bottle on the pizza to show that we accept glass, but working with glass could be dangerous, so I would encourage you not to use glass in either project unless you can find a way to use it safely," Rice said.

His second pizza was a one-topping of shredded paper.

"Neither of these pizzas would win the pizza contest," he said. "There is nothing interesting or creative about either one. It will be up to you to make a pizza that is really special."

Rice said parents are encouraged to help their children with their recycling projects.

"The purpose of this project is to make children and their parents aware of the recyclable materials we accept at Troy Recycling Center," he said. "The more aware they are, the more likely they are to recycle."

Rice said the materials that are recycled in Troy and the ones that may be used in the REBA and pizza projects are aluminum cans, metal cans, cardboard boxes or tubes, shredded computer paper, slick-paper magazines, newspapers, paper grocery bags and plastic soda and milk containers.

"Look at the bottom of your plastic item for he national recycling logo," Rice said. "If the log has a ‘1’ or ‘2’ in it, we can us it. If it has a ‘3’ through ‘7’, please throw it in your garbage. If it has no logo, throw it in your garbage also."

Rice said glass jars and bottles are also accepted at the Troy Recycling Center, but cautioned the children and parents to use them safely, if at all.

Deadline for the REBA and pizza recycling contest is 2 p.m. June 11.

At that time, all entries are to be brought to the Troy Public Library for judging.

Teresa Colvin, children’s librarian, said entries will be accepted prior to that day and time, but warned that an early entry could be an inspiration for another contestant.’