PepsiCo has announced the official start of the Dream Machine Recycle Rally for the 2011/2012 school year. The Dream Machine Recycle Rally is a national program that aims to raise awareness of the importance of recycling among students, grades K-12, and gives participating schools a chance to earn rewards and compete for prizes.

The Dream Machine Recycle Rally is part of the broader Dream Machine recycling initiative—a multi-year collaboration between PepsiCo, Waste Management and Keep America Beautiful, that utilizes www.greenopolis.com. Through the Dream Machine recycling initiative, PepsiCo aims to create strategic partnerships to help increase the U.S. beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018 by providing greater on-the-go access to recycling receptacles.

Photo: Students participating in Dream Machine Recycle Rally celebrate their recycling achievements

Schools participating in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally earn points for every non-alcoholic aluminum can or plastic bottle collected through the program year-round, and schools can redeem those points with local businesses and major retailers for rewards such as sporting goods, electronics, gift cards, educational events, and music, books and videos. During the contest period, which runs from August 1, 2011 through April 30, 2012, participating schools may also be eligible to win one of more than seventy-five contest prizes, such as the $50,000 Dream Green School Makeover grand prize.

For all the bottles and cans recycled through the program—the broader Dream Machine program and the Dream Machine Recycle Rally—PepsiCo will provide support to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a national program offering free education in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities.

Once individual schools sign-up to participate and are accepted into the Dream Machine Recycle Rally program, the school receives—free of charge—a laptop and either a scanner, or a scale and scanner, to be used to tally can and bottle collections and manage point redemptions. Waste Management coordinates the pickup and processing of the recyclables. Currently, more than 500 schools in over 30 states are participating in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally program.

During last year’s contest, St. Pascal School in Chicago, Ill. was the official winner of the Dream Machine Recycle Rally Dream Green School Makeover grand prize to be used toward green improvements at the school. With the help of students, faculty, parents and community volunteers, St. Pascal School recycled an average of approximately 2,286 beverage containers per student, the equivalent of 114 pounds of containers per student.