CITGO Continues Earth Keepers Program
Educating Students about Recycling
Sulphur, La. — April 2, 2015 — The CITGO Earth Keepers program, an environmental action partnership between CITGO, the City of Sulphur, Waste Management, the Calcasieu Parish School Board and Stine is growing its green efforts this year. CITGO Earth Keepers continues at 14 schools; 13 in Sulphur and one in Lake Charles. The program has seen exponential growth in the last year.
The program which was piloted in December 2013, has benefited 8,200 Calcasieu Parish students so far. As of January 2015, CITGO Earth Keepers schools collected enough materials to fill 264 eight-yard capacity dumpsters – the equivalent of ten 18-wheeler trucks, and community collection sites at Stine in Sulphur, Lake Charles, and the schools, collected a grand total of 5,088 cubic yards of material.
CITGO Vice President and General Manager Tomeu Vadell said CITGO Earth Keepers is a valuable tool for teaching the next generation about the benefits of taking care of the environment. “The results speak for themselves,” Vadell said. “Our community, including the students, have adopted the CITGO Earth Keepers program as their own and are taking the initiative to properly recycle materials that otherwise would end up in landfills. Earth Keepers is our opportunity to decide today what tomorrow’s environment will look like for the next generation.”
Earth Keepers schools include: Sulphur High School, Sulphur High 9th Grade Campus, Maplewood Middle School, W.W. Lewis Middle School, LeBlanc Middle School, E.K. Key Elementary School, Maplewood Elementary School, R.W. Vincent Elementary School, Frasch Elementary School, W.T. Henning Elementary School; Cypress Cove Elementary School, Vincent Settlement Elementary School, Our Lady’s School and St. Louis Catholic High School.
The CITGO Earth Keepers initiative provides schools with classroom and outdoor recycling bins at no cost as well as instructions and recycling education to maintain the program. Each school is responsible for coordinating its recycling collection and is required to report each month on its results. In addition, during 2014, each school planted a tree donated by Stine to commemorate the launch of the CITGO Earth Keepers program at each school.
CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
For more information visit www.citgo.com.
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CONTACT:
Dana Keel
Government & Public Affairs Manager
(o)337-708-8039
(c)337-515-5847
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