Students at the Big Island’s Kohala Middle School won a national competition by finding ways to recycle batteries in their community.

Now they’re taking their award-winning battery recycling plan to county leaders.

The students planned to present their findings to the Hawaii County Environmental Management Commission today in hopes that their project could lead to broader battery recycling efforts.

Because there were no options in Kohala to recycle household batteries, students Isabel Steinhoff, Rico Bowman, Genevieve Boyle and Mina Apostadiro sought to collect 6,000 batteries in 60 days for the Seimens We Can Change the World Challenge.

They shared information about battery recycling through school bulletins, school assemblies, posters and public service announcements.

Then they put recycling bins in the community for collection.