Thousands of creative recycling events are being planned for America Recycles Day <http://americarecyclesday.org> (ARD), a Keep America Beautiful initiative, which takes place on and in the weeks leading up to Nov. 15. America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. In its 18th year, ARD educates people about the importance of recycling to our economy and environmental well-being, and helps to motivate occasional recyclers to become everyday recyclers.
A number of ARD special events are focusing on this year’s theme of “Bathrooms, Bags & Gadgets.” They include:
- Johnson & Johnson Family of Consumer Companies and its Care to Recycle <http://caretorecycle.com/> program are giving away 10,000 bathroom recycling bags this ARD. The objective is to provide a reminder to individuals about what bathroom items are recyclable.
- CyclePoint® from SourceAmerica®, the 46-member nonprofit eRecycling network whose mission is to create jobs for people with disabilities, will be hosting 50 eRecycling events nationwide, including marquee events in Maryland, Michigan and Oklahoma.
- More than 100 collection and educational events featuring plastic bag recycling are taking place during 2015 America Recycles Day.
“Bathrooms, Bags & Gadgets” shines a light on some of the everyday but not “top of mind” consumer products, which can and should be given another life through recycling. These include personal care items commonly found in the bathroom, such as haircare and mouthwash bottles; plastic bags and wraps used in packaging produce, paper towels, bathroom tissue or dry cleaning that can be recycled at grocery stores; and consumer electronics and gadgets, such as mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, TVs and more.
“There are so many consumer products beyond aluminum cans and plastic bottles that can be recycled and made into something new and useful, which is why this year’s theme is ‘Bathrooms, Bags and Gadgets,’” said Brenda Pulley, Keep America Beautiful’s senior vice president, recycling. “We also want to encourage people to participate in the ‘I Will Recycle’ online pledge sweepstakes, which is a fun and engaging way to commit to recycling this America Recycles Day.”
During ARD 2015, individuals are encouraged to take the “I Will Recycle” Pledge, which runs through Nov. 20. The “I Will Recycle” Sweepstakes will provide four people the chance to win an Apple Certified Refurbished iPad mini 3. Individuals are encouraged to demonstrate their recycling spirit and automatically be entered in the sweepstakes by posting a photo on Twitter at @KABTweet or @RecyclesDay or @KeepAmericaBeautiful on Instagram holding a recyclable product that they pledge to recycle with the hashtags #IWillRecycle and #Sweepstakes. Individuals must enable public viewing of Twitter and Instagram photos. Keep America Beautiful may share tagged social media posts with its fans and four individuals will be selected at random to win an Apple Certified Refurbished iPad mini 3. For more details on how to enter, read the Official Rules.
Keep America Beautiful, in partnership with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and other partners, will host a Congressional briefing for ARD on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The purpose of the briefing is to provide information to Members of Congress and staff about the state of recycling, the business of recycling, its many benefits, and the importance of engaging individuals to recycle.
Other featured ARD 2015 events include:
- New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who is chair of the Council Sanitation Committee, will celebrate ARD on Saturday, Nov. 14, with an event at the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn. The 1:00 p.m. event is being conducted along with the New York City Housing Authority and the City of New York Department of Sanitation, with participation by Keep America Beautiful and GrowNYC.
- In celebration of ARD, Mathy Stanislaus, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, and EPA Region 4 Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney will announce preliminary results of the EPA’s analysis on job creation in the recycling sector as well as a discussion about the importance of recycling to the supply chain. This Nov. 16 event will occur at the Food Recovery Summit, a meeting bringing together industry leaders to discuss steps to achieve the announced goal to reduce food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030.
- For the second year in Georgia, during the week of Nov. 9-15, K-12 school students in the state of Georgia are encouraged to read books that celebrate, educate, and encourage waste reduction activities through the Read for Recycle Georgia program.
- America Recycles Day at SandBlast 2015 on Saturday, Nov. 14, in Holmes Beach, Florida, is a sand sculpture competition that helps raise awareness about recycling.
It’s not too late to register your ARD event at AmericaRecyclesDay.org. Local organizers can schedule events in their communities and gain access to valuable resources to plan, promote and host an ARD event. Events can be scheduled any time during the fall, but should be held as close to Nov. 15 as possible.
Learn more about ARD at http://americarecyclesday.org where you can find a recycling event near you, register to host your own, or discover more information about how, when and where to recycle in your community. For more information, visit www.kab.org.