Pearl City Highlands won first place for schools with "medium" sized enrollment. On the Big Island, Kohala High School won the $10,000 prize for small schools; and on Maui, Kahului Elementary won the top $10,000 prize for large schools.

The recycling contest was designed to help kick-start the bottle deposit law passed by the state Legislature in 2002, by clearing out the old containers that did not have the "HI-5" deposit label and to encourage students to get into the habit of recycling, Fukino said. The refund portion of the law took effect Jan. 1.

In the small schools category, second place went to Voyager Charter School and third place to Wailupe Valley Elementary.

In the medium schools category, second place went to Momilani Elementary School and third place to Pearl Ridge Elementary. In the large schools category, second place went to Baldwin High School on Maui and third place to Kalani High School.

Second-place winners received $5,000 while third-place winners got $4,000, fourth place $3,000; fifth place, $2,000; and sixth place, $1,000.

Foodland, 7-Eleven Stores and Star Market partnered with the Department of Health to sponsor a separate competition for private schools. These retailers worked together to provide cash awards to the top three private schools: St. Theresa (Kekaha), St. Catherine and Maryknoll High School, for a total of $3,500 in prizes.

Schools that took part but did not receive cash prizes will receive the material value of the containers they collected to meet the Challenge.

"We hope schools will consider making recycling a year-round activity," Fukino said.