Danielle Jackson

Washington, D.C. -- President George W. Bush and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Christie Whitman honored 30 students with the 2001 President's Environmental Youth Awards Thursday for their environmental protection efforts.

Recipients submitted project summaries to the EPA's regional offices, where they were judged on the basis of goal accomplishment, long-term environmental benefits and community impact, as well as design, implementation and project effectiveness.

Winning projects included a film documentary on recycling and a waste-to-energy plant from Stonington high school, Pawcatuck, Conn. The high school, named "Green High School" in 2000 by the Connecticut Recyclers Association, focuses on teaching younger students at the elementary level about recycling.

Another project, entitled "The 'R' Project, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Respect," from Reeds high school in Reeds Spring, Mo., is an integrated waste management program that began in 2000 that includes a no-discharge, in-vessel, organic composting system for food waste, paper, grass, leaves, wood chips, and other organic materials.