3R's Art & Poetry Contest

Our goal is to engage the City of Tampa’s youth in environmental stewardship while conveying a recycling and waste reduction message.  A first-place winner will be selected from each of the following categories: Elementary, Middle, High School, and the MacDonald Training Center. The winning artwork will be displayed on a recycling collection truck for one year. The winning poetry will be on display at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park alongside the Tampa River Center Building.

 

Eligibility and Important Dates

Eligibility Requirements

  • Students (grades 3 - 12) enrolled in a school or homeschooled within the City of Tampa limits under Tampa Solid Waste Service.
  • Clients of the MacDonald Training Center Arts Program.
  • Verify with schools list provided in the Rules & Regulations Packet link below:
  • Click on the button below to read complete rules & regulations. 

Dates

  • Submission Deadline: 2026 submission date will be posted in Late November.
  • Online Voting: Dates will be announced for the 2026 contest.
  • Winners will be notified in March.
  • Please review the Contest Rules & Regulations packet for more specifics and details.   

For questions, please email Edgar.CastroTello@tampagov.net.

2025 Art Winners

Girl wearing dress made of repurposed items like cans and bottle caps

Sara - MacDonald Training Center

Planet earth divided in two sections with a clean one and a dirty polluted one

Princess- Roland Park K-8

The planet with a wrapped around around that says Reduce in large letters

Guillermo - Roland Park K-8

Fish made of different repurposed material: cardboard, newspaper, plastic

Cora - Howard W. Blake High School

2025 Poetry Winners

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

by Henry - Roland Park K - 8


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

To save our Earth

We only have one,

So, see it for what it’s worth.

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Like the Earth depends on it,

(Because it kind of does)

I shouldn’t have to tell you,

You should just do it because.

 

I want no junk on this Earth I see,

We can still fix this broken prophecy.

Let’s keep Earth clean cause it’s all ours to share.

So, we have to take extra good care.
 

Humans' Last Chance

Gavin - Jesuit High School


Our beautiful earth conceived humans out of dust

Many years later, they leave the earth to rust

 

The blame lies on things quickly made and quickly consumed

Little do they know it will lead to human’s doom

 

Once sprawling cities now strangled by trash

Left to rot or burn to heaping piles of ash

 

Garbage and waste in rivers and streams

All because we wanted cheap jeans

 

The earth thinks she put up a good fight

While the humans lie down for one last night

 

If only they reduced what they thew away

They would be certain to live another day

 

Without humans Mother Earth will recover from the burns

And perhaps she’ll give humans another turn