:: Share 'N' Voice :: America Recycles Day ::

Originally, I wanted to share a cool YouTube video with everyone this week (it will appear another week), but events in my Facebook feed on Tuesday made me change my mind. I now want to share a website with you. This past Tuesday, the 15th of November, was actually an important day (for me it was important in two ways...it was also my daughter's 13th birthday). On Tuesday, communities across the country celebrated America Recycles Day.

America Recycles Day, an initiative that has been around since 1997, is a day that is dedicated to encouraging people to recycle more at home, at work and on the go. It is the only nationally recognized day that is dedicated to the promotion of recycling. The national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful leads the celebration year after year. They provide resources and support to the activities of over 1,500 grassroots event organizers across the country. Keep America Beautiful (KAB) has a long history of forming public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving the environment that we all live in. Established in 1953, KAB is the largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. DID YOU READ THAT.....VOLUNTEER-BASED COMMUNITY ACTION!!!!! WOW!!!!! This work is carried out by a national network of over 1,000 affiliates and participating organizations, which address challenges such as litter prevention, recycling and waste reduction and beautification and community greening.

Keep America Beautiful

The sponsors and partners for America Recycles Day is impressive. Companies like Waste Management, Pepsico, Disney Friends for Change, LG, Nestle Waters, Glad, Johnson & Johnson and the EPA are just a sampling of the different companies. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised to see Nestle Waters and Pepsico included.  This stems from watching "Tapped" and thinking that these companies don't particular care about the overall cost of their 'bottles'. The recycling efforts of both of these companies (and others) is covered on the Sponsors and Partners page of the website.

Nearly sixty-five hundred people signed the pledge on the America Recycles Day webpage. The site asked people to take a pledge to learn about the recycling option in their communities, reduce their personal waste through recycling and to start recycling one new type of material in the next month. I took this pledge...I think you should too. =) I would like to find places where I can safely dispose of electronics, batteries and fluorescent light bulbs. I discovered in a cleaning spree the other day that I have a ton of fluorescent bulbs that need to be disposed of. I am attempting to eliminate them from my house. They provide the most light in my basement, but I realize how bad they are to my electric bill and the environment. Batteries are so easy to just throw in the garbage, but do we really realize the impact of that action? So instead they sit around collecting dust and taking up space in my house. Who will take these? Do you know????

Maybe someone reading this blog (like next year's ESG Leadership Team) will take the initiative to not only read more about the America Recycles Day, but will also start planning to host an America Recycles Day event here on campus (I would...but graduation will come first for me). The website provides helpful tips for celebrating recycling on campus. These tips provide not only ways to increase the visibility of the recycling program here on campus, but could also heighten waste reduction awareness and increase recycling participation among students, alumni and faculty. Above all an even on campus could increase the amount of materials recycled.

Even though America Recycles Day has passed, it is never too late to take the pledge to make our world a better place for ourselves and our future generations.