During the week of November 15th, thousands of events commemorating America Recycles Day will be held throughout the U.S. in an effort to promote recycling and the use of renewable and reusable products.
Show Your Support by Showing Up
Depending upon where you live, you may find charitable organizations set up for recycling used shoes and clothing, eyeglasses and electronics. Local governments will have special collection centers for recycling household wastes, such as paints, solvents, used antifreeze, batteries, garden chemicals, etc.
Schools are hosting competitions to see which classes can collect the most aluminum cans, and many college campuses will host special tailgating activities to collect recyclables and and motivate students to think in reusable, renewable terms 365 days a year.
In many cities, corporate sponsors are teaming up with local governments to stage more elaborate events throughout the week.
Bayfront Park in Miami, for example, will play host to the annual Bayside Rocks Festival on November 19th, “A concert on the green to keep the environment clean.” The event will include a farmer’s market, yoga demonstrations, and ecology and social consciousness workshops, all to the sounds of different acts playing tribute to Bob Marley & the Wailers.
Washington, D.C. plans to do its part by rewarding recyclers who use PepsiCo’s’ new Dream Machines, devices designed to increase beverage container recycling while also supporting the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities.
To learn what’s happening in your area, visit the America Recycles Day website where you can search events by ZIP code. Last year, more than 2 million people participated in 2,000 events, and this year promises to be even bigger.
Recycling Year-Round
Incorporating recycling into our daily lifestyles isn’t all that difficult and can actually be fun. The Keep America Beautiful initiative, which organizes America Recycles Day, offers these 10 suggestions for helping you get started or improving your current efforts:
- Know your local recycling system. Different communities have different standards for what can be recycled and how to do it.
- Plastic recycling: it’s all in the numbers. Look for the recycling symbol on plastic packaging or containers. #1 and #2 plastics should be accepted by almost every recycler. Some communities require that your plastic bottles have a “neck,” so know your local rules.
- Can it! Metals are among the most valuable materials in the waste stream. Aluminum and steel cans are always welcomed by recyclers.
- Make recycling easy on the road. Keep two bags in your car or truck to contain your trash – one bag for garbage, and one for recyclables.
- Answer the call to recycle your wireless phone! Hundreds of millions of out-of-service phones are waiting to be reused or recycled. Find a local charity with a phone recycling program, or visit Earth911.com to find recyclers near you.
- Look beyond the daily paper. In addition to newspapers, most communities will accept corrugated cardboard, and some will even accept junk mail, catalogues and phone books.
- Plug in to E-cycling. Never throw old computers, monitors, TVs, printers, or other electronics in the landfill. Instead, donate them to a local charity for reuse, or find out about your local e-cycling programs.
- Improve your community with a cleanup event. Join or organize a local cleanup event, and be sure to sort the recyclables you pick up. You’ll be amazed at what a difference a little effort can make.
- Teach your children well. Involve your kids in recycling and make it fun. Even preschoolers can help with sorting recyclables, and they’ll learn a lot about the world around them in the process.
- Don’t forget about “Reduce” and “Reuse.” Reducing the amount of trash we throw away by reusing products before disposing of them is the best way to reduce our impact on the planet.
If you’re unsure how, where or what to recycle, Earth 911 provides a search function that enables visitors to find the nearest recycling center by address or zip code — or by type of waste material, such as automotive, glass, electronics, etc.
