With participation by more than 30,000 students in nine school districts, the Town of North Hempstead's "Under the School Recycling Partnership" diverts 25 tons of paper and six tons of co-mingled trash from landfills every month.

In recognition of this effort, the brainchild of Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman, the town recently received one of four awards granted in the sixth annual state Department of Conservation's Environmental Excellence Award.

Another Long Island township, Islip, also received the award for its Environmental Control Pump-out Boat program, which collected and thereby diverted from Great South Bay some 25,810 gallons of raw sewage last year and 19,440 gallons in 2007.

The DEC award also went this year to:

• Monroe County Department of Environmental Services for holding the first pharmaceuticals collection in the state, and for creating an innovative tool to help other locales do likewise; and
  
• Camp Venture Inc. , a Rockland County non-profit organization, which equipped its Sidney Drive residence for developmentally disabled children with a 3,335 Kilowatt solar panel to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  
• The Town of Islip Environmental Control Pump-out Boat program, which collected 19,440 gallons of boat sewage in 2007 and 25,810 gallons in 2008, thus improving water quality in the Great South Bay.