Newport Beach Area Student Wins Eco Challenge Poster Contest

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — These Orange County kids who raised the bar to become "recycling champions" had the rare opportunity to stand on the field of Angels Stadium before thousands of fans. Five young artists, each inspired to be great recycling champions, stood on hallowed ground of Angels Stadium, appeared on the big screen and were introduced to the crowd.

Their moment came at the OC Waste & Recycling Poster Contest Awards Ceremony, held Friday, Sept. 15 ahead of the Angels game. The celebration was the culminating event for the contest winners. In addition to the recognition, they each served as honorary bat kids at an Angels baseball game during the previous week.

The 2017 Eco Challenge Poster Contest was themed “Batting for a Green Planet.”
One winner was selected from each of Orange County’s five supervisorial districts.

This year’s winners are:

• Chelsey Ruiz, age 14, Garden Grove – First District, Vice Chair and Supervisor Andrew Do;
• Sophie Rafle, age 8, Costa Mesa, Second District, Chairwoman and Supervisor Michelle Steel;
• Maxwell Ngo, age 9, Tustin, Third District, Supervisor Todd Spitzer;
• Angela Flores, age 9, Placentia, Fourth District, Supervisor Shawn Nelson; and,
• Tanner Salgado, age 13, San Clemente, Fifth District, Supervisor Lisa Bartlett

Almost 500 posters were entered into the contest, which challenged Orange County children between the ages of eight and 14 to illustrate the benefits of food and green waste recycling.

Through their poster art, these artists help to spread the word that it’s important to recycle food waste and green waste.

This is the fifth annual contest, which is a partnership among OCWR, Discovery Cube OC and Angels Baseball. Information about the 2018 poster contest will be available early next year.

“This is a new era of recycling. We have moved from focusing on bottles, cans and newspaper to a more complex horizon in recycling—green waste and food waste. Much can be gained by recycling organic materials,” said Michelle Steel, Chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “To see the ideas of these artists as imagined in their posters is a real inspiration. I am very pleased to participate in celebrating the artists and their commitment to a better, cleaner future.” She added that meeting new recycling mandates also will call for collecting and processing organic materials, and changing how we manage waste within our homes.

The Eco Challenge is a County-sponsored, regional program created to educate the community on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle with the goal of preserving our natural resources and landfill capacity for current and future generations.
Families can “Take the Eco Challenge” by visiting the interactive Eco Challenge exhibits at Discovery Cube OC and participating in the various Eco Challenge collection events throughout the year.

Photo, courtesy OC Waste & recycling