It’s like taking a bag of trash to the bank and being handed a check for local schools.

Only easier.

For the past three years, Logan Aluminum and Bowling Green Technical College have been taking strides to help area schools raise money using recycling bins for aluminum cans in their parking lots.

The five-year program, Drive to a Million, was started in 2006 in an effort to help area schools raise $1 million by 2011.

To date, the program has raised about $35,000, and local officials say they are forming new initiatives with local businesses to help collect cans that bring 100 percent profit to the schools.

Since the program was started, some of the leading recycling schools have gotten more than $2,000 to be used for classroom materials, student programming or technology.

Ellie Adams, coordinator for Drive to a Million with BGTC, said Cumberland Trace Elementary School has collected 5,400 pounds of aluminum cans to bring home a paycheck of $3,007.

Adams said while the price of aluminum has dropped over the last year, down to 35 cents a pound from 80 cents, if more people participated, schools could continue to reap the benefits.

The average family of four consumes 1,500 cans a year, Adams said. So if 400 children brought in their cans to each school, it could raise $8,000 based on current prices, she said.

“The schools have done really well about getting kids excited, but we can do so much more,” Adams said. “What we’re hoping with the kids and community is that it isn’t so much about the money - it’s about the kids seeing aluminum as money so they will recycle.”

Adams said the program is working to partner with local businesses to set up recycling centers in central company areas where the cans can be contributed to either a selected school or all of the 39 schools in the program.

Since its inception, Drive to a Million has expanded from 17 schools to include 39 in both Warren and Logan counties as well as Western Kentucky University.

Adams said Monarch Environmental picks up the cans from each site and takes them to Southern Recycling. Southern then turns a check for 100 percent of the profits to the individual schools based on collection.

The program was started when Logan Aluminum contributed a donation to the BGTC Foundation to start a recycling program to encourage can collecting and fundraising for schools.

Some schools have morning assemblies where each child is recognized when they bring in cans to school, Adams said.

At Alvaton Elementary School, where the second most cans have been collected with 4,565 pounds, PTO groups encourage everyone to bring in their used soda cans as an easy fundraiser.

Mark Rathbun, principal at the school, said parents have realized how simple it is to donate cans rather than have to sell candy bars or do other fundraisers for the school.

“I think it’s great because it’s caused a lot of us, including myself, to recycle instead of throwing a can away,” he said. “It’s a super easy way to make extra money for the school and not have to do anything.”

Adams said anyone in the community can dump their cans into the bins at the schools or the bin at WKU in the parking lot of the Supply-Services building by the Russellville Road bridge.

Adams said while the program may not reach $1 million by 2011, she sees it continuing beyond then to raise more money for schools.

“The program does need a boost,” she said, adding that the new business partnerships are expected to help. “You really can see that the schools who do the best have an organized effort as well as parental and community support.”

— For more information about the program or to become a business partner, visit www.drive toamillion.org.