America Recycles Day 2012

Today is the perfect day to commit to a lifetime of recycling.

Thu, Nov 15 2012 at 8:00 AM

Related Topics:

Go Green, Green Business, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Photo: Melissa Hincha-Ownby

Happy America Recycles Day! America Recycles Day (ARD) is a project of Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit volunteer-based community action organization dedicated to recycling, waste reduction, litter prevention and simply keeping our communities beautiful for generations to come.

Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is launching the Recycling at Work Initiative in honor of America Recycles Day 2012. The initiative encourages businesses, government agencies, schools, hospitals and other worksites to commit to increasing workplace recycling by 10 percent by 2015. The initiative is the result of KAB’s 2012 Clinton Global Initiative partnership with Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation.

“The environmental impact from recycling remains critically important as a measure of sustainable economies and vibrant communities,” said Matt McKenna, KAB president and chief executive officer. “To increase our national municipal recycling rate from its current 34 percent level, the increase will come less from national initiatives and more from locally-driven efforts. Engaging individuals to take the action to recycle at home, at work and at play is the linchpin to increasing recycling rates.” Source: KAB

If you aren’t a business owner but want to get involved with the ARD 2012 festivities don’t fret, there are other ways to participate. KAB has partnered with Catalog Choice to offer free junk-mail opt-outs today. Simply visit the special America Recycles Day Opt Out website and sign up.

After opting out of unwanted junk mail, head on over to the America Recycles Day event finder to find an activity in your area. While today is the official America Recycles Day, some activities may be weeklong events while others are held over the upcoming weekend.

For example, the City of Chandler, Arizona is hosting a free backyard compost workshop at 9:00 am on Saturday, November 17 at City Hall. A local high school, Corona del Sol, is hosting a weeklong event: No Impact Week.

“Our campus will feature a recycling drive with United Fibers, and an e-waste drive.   Bring your old towels, sheets, rags and clothes so they can become insulation in an area home, or bring your old broken electronics to help the school clubs earn money and keep those items out of the landfill.”

Kudos to the students at Corona del Sol high school as well as other high schools in the Tempe Union High School District for participating in the America Recycles Day festivities.

What are your plans for today?

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Comments: 2

The Refinishing... Nov 15 2012 at 4:35 PM

America Recycles Day is an event we look forward to year after year. Not only does it raise awareness on the importance of waste reduction and environmental preservation, it holds organizations, government agencies, schools, and individuals accountable for their actions and impact on our future. Here at The Refinishing Touch, our goal is to help the government, hotels and universities save money and decrease carbon emissions by reusing and refinishing aging furniture assets, instead of buying new

.... More

and sending quality furniture to our nation’s landfills. While our services are targeted for large-scale projects, reusing and repurposing is a mentality that everyone should adopt, regardless of size. So here’s to another great America Recycles Day, we hope our country will continue these positive initiatives long after this day passes.

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Jeff Nov 15 2012 at 1:25 PM

Great concept! Glad awareness is being spread about the virtues of recycling. I noticed an "end user" goal of increasing workplace/institutional recycling efforts to 10% by 2015. It would be great to challenge industry to reduce its use of packaging materials, or convert to recycled materials, too.