Tampa's recycling trucks display student artwork

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The city of Tampa's recycling trucks aren't just collecting garbage. They are displaying art. 

"I saw the truck in person a few weeks ago and pulling up. It just gave me a great feeling, like that's actually my work, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to be spread around Tampa Bay," said Blake High student Casey Sterling.

Casey is the artist behind the work featured on the recycling trucks. He was the winner of an art contest from the city's solid waste department.

"I thought about the song, 'He has the whole world in his hands', and that song I know relates back to God, but in this piece and the world's future, we have the world in our hands and it's up to us with the future of the world," Casey said.

Mark Wilfalk, the director of the city's solid waste department, said the trucks are meant to drive home a message about taking care of our environment.

"Really trying to increase the awareness of recycling, use it as an extension of education, so that when kids come home they also bring home the message of how to recycle right into their households and throughout our community," he said.

Blake High students Sarah Jarvis and Andrew Joseph also received honorable mentions. 

"I want to show that everybody can recycle no matter what color, background, age or anything," Andrew said.

Sarah said she hopes the increased awareness also helps the public learn how to recycle the right way.

"People putting the wrong things into recycling purely from just knowing what can't go in, what can go in," she said.

It's a visual reminder that we can all do our part to make a difference.

"Everybody needs to recycle and it takes everybody's helping hand to do it," Casey said.