Guinness World Record for Collect-a-Can again

This increased figure could be attributed to recovering food, paint and aerosol cans in addition to the previous focus of beverage cans and the assistance of schools and charities that are incentivised to help bring in a bumper number of cans in October for the competition.

"We are pleased with the results and would like to thank all the schools and NGOs that worked so hard to help us reach these targets," says Gregory Masoka, operations manager of Collect-a-Can. "It gives us great pleasure to be able to recognise the top collectors with prizes in our Guinness World Records competition."

Winners

Schools that collected the most cans in each region for October earned a cash prize of R4000, sponsored by BevCan and Collect-a-Can. Winners were Roodekrans Primary School in Aeroton, Lochnerhof Laerskool in Cape Town, Mthethomusha Primary School in Durban, Riba Primary School in Pretoria, Segwetihane Primary School in North West and Qhoweng Primary School in Vanderbijlpark. Riba Primary School did particularly well, bringing in 144 000 cans in just one month.

Runners up were Sediko Primary School in North West Province who won a book prize sponsored by Pan Macmillan and Kose Moeka Primary School North West and Mojala Thuto Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, which each won a hamper sponsored by SC Johnson.

Organisations that collected the most cans in October were Oasis Association, Cape of Good Hope SPCA and Ocean View Association.

2012 plans

Zimasa Velaphi, PR and marketing manager at Collect-a-Can, has big plans for the competition next year. "2012 could earn us our fifth Guinness World Records mention and that is worth celebrating. We'd like to include as many participating schools and charity organisations in our drive as possible and encourage the public and corporate organisations to get involved by donating cans to their favourite school or charity."

For more information, go to www.collectacan.co.za - also on Facebook and Twitter (@CollectaCan)