The Associated Press

FLIPPIN, Ark.—In less than a week, Flippin High School students saved 100 trees.

The high school’s science club started a five-day recycling competition and collected more than six tons of paper—which amounts to about 100 trees, according to Dwan Garrison, Flippin High School science teacher and science club sponsor.

The 12-member club initiated the school’s new recycling program in an effort to keep the community beautiful and eliminate landfill waste, they said.“We’re the Natural State,” said Brittany Lane, senior and president of the science club. “We don’t want Marion County to lose its beauty.”

The classroom competition was the kick-off to a month-long recycling awareness campaign. On the last day of the competition, the school received a permanent trailer to recycle the school’s paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and tin cans. Wal-Mart also donated indoor recycling containers for plastic bottles. The recyclables will be taken to the Marion County transfer station.“We’ve got to do something,” said Shawna Staples, a junior and science club member. “It’s something that affects everybody.”

The science club wasn’t sure if a pizza party would be enough motivation to encourage students to recycle, until students showed up at the school with pick-up trucks and trailers full of paper, they said. They soon realized the few cardboard boxes they passed out to the classrooms would not be enough. Garrison said she had talked to her class about the impact humans have on global warming and how the climate is changing.