On May 9, the awards ceremony for the 2019 Tianjin Recycling Educational Challenge (TReC) was held at the Himalaya Tianta. This was the TreC program’s 4th year, continuing on its tradition as an educational initiative developed by TJenvironcom and organized by the Tianjin Chapter of AmCham China, where Tianjin's premier international schools participate in a week of recycling and environmental activities. Activities include a recyclables collection drive, as well as an art competition where artwork is composed from recycled materials.
This year saw participation from Tianjin International School, Wellington Tianjin, Tianjin Yinghua International School (Wuqing and Dongli Campuses), and TEDA International School. Caterpillar Tianjin Ltd., with Anisa Cosmetics sponsoring materials for use in the creation of artwork. Prize sponsors included Ocean Park and the Cambridge Mask Company. Himalaya Tianta Apartments was the venue and awards sponsor
Approx. 1300 kgs of recyclable materials were collected during the week, a year-on-year gain of 69%, and almost 50 works of art were created from materials donated by CAT and Anisa.
Additionally, during his visit to Tianjin on May 7, US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad viewed some of the artwork, and heard from some of the participating students about their thoughts on the environment and the TreC project.
Representatives from the US Embassy Environmental Section, local artists, and representatives from NGOs including Conservation International and the APEC Green Supply Chain Center served as judges in the art segment. The awards ceremony was hosted by TJenvironcom founder Alex Scilla.
The TReC-TECC Total [TTT], a tally of the results to date between TReC and it’s sister program TECC (The Tianjin Environmental CSR Challenge) is now ranking in at a recovery total of 3077 kgs of secondary resources, reduced energy usage of over of 30000 kwh, and water savings of over 200 tons.
