Summary
Annual competition encourages creative expression and environmental awareness
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has announced that young writers and artists from around Illinois in grades 5-6 are invited to participate in this year’s Poster, Poetry, and Prose Contest.
The 2025 theme, How Can You Slash Your Trash?, invites students to think creatively about how to reduce the amount of waste they produce, such as through buying fewer single-use products, diverting food waste, repairing broken items instead of replacing or buying new, and recycling responsibly.
“The creation of posters and written works gives students an opportunity to express and share what they have learned,” the agency explained.
In addition to the individual student contest, this year’s competition also includes a group video contest for 5th and 6th grade classrooms. Each class is invited to submit a 60-second video that highlights waste reduction strategies in accordance with the same theme, How Can You Slash Your Trash? Homeschool units, 4-H clubs, scout troops, and other extracurricular or after school groups with a minimum of five students are also eligible to participate in the video contest.
Educators are encouraged to introduce the Illinois EPA’s curricula units on waste management and food waste, which are available for free at https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/education.html.
These units, which are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, offer lesson plans and activities to help students understand the amount of waste thrown away individually and collectively, why that causes problems, and how waste reduction can positively impact the environment. Additional informational resources have been shared by the Illinois EPA on the contest website.
After learning about waste reduction, students are invited to create posters or written works for the contest related to this year’s theme. Teachers may display the submissions for voting and submit final entries to the Illinois EPA for further judging. Teachers may submit up to eight individual entries per school to the Illinois EPA by February 3, 2025.
The students whose works are chosen for the exhibit will receive a certificate and ribbon. The top twelve entries will be given special recognition and displayed on the Illinois EPA website.
Additional information, rules, and required documents for both contests can be found at https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/education/contest.html.
Other questions can be directed to Kristi Morris at Kristi.Morris@illinois.gov, or Eli Dollarhide at eli.dollarhide@illinois.gov.
