The Berry Company is recognizing St. Joseph Elementary School with a check for $700 for their first place standing in this year's Think Yellow, Go Green Telephone Directory Recycling Contest. The prize money will be used to fund the school's extracurricular robotics club, which meets weekly to encourage students' interest in science and engineering.

As a school, St. Joseph Elementary collected nearly 7,000 pounds of telephone directories, the equivalent of more than 2,300 phone books. In total, Hawaii schools helped The Berry Company collect and recycle more than 105 tons of outdated directories in 2009.

"At Hawaiian Telcom Yellow Pages, we're committed to sustainable business practices, which include source reduction, environmentally responsible manufacturing and recycling," said Nelia Vistacion, local marketing manager. "We're thrilled with the strong support from our local schools and the community, and look forward to personally thanking our winning school."

The recycling program took place in May 2009 and the recycled telephone directories were transferred to participating recycling partners. The directories were ultimately processed into materials which will be used locally for insulation, roofing and mulch.

The contest included more than 50 schools from five neighboring islands including Hawaii, Kauai, Lanai, Maui and Molokai.