Dr. Karen Bell
Keep Liberty Beautiful
This Friday, November 15, is America Recycles Day! This is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States! The vast majority of Americans support recycling. The support goes beyond the act of putting waste into the recycling bin. Consumers want more products made from recycled materials. Businesses are developing new ways to use recycled materials to meet consumer demand. Municipalities want to recycle more, reducing the need for landfills.
Have you taken the Recycling Reality Check Quiz yet? This quiz is a fun and informative way to test your knowledge about recycling and learn more about how you can contribute. Test your knowledge today online at https://kab.org/america- recycles-day-quiz/.
This week, start or increase your recycling efforts. If you have never recycled, this would be a great week to start. Recycling is one of the easiest and most important ways to stand up for the environment. The average American generates 4.48 pounds of trash daily, adding to the 262 million tons of trash the United States accumulates yearly.
American communities recycled and composted nearly 35% of municipal solid waste in 2015, diverting 91 million tons from turning into trash, according to the U.S. EPA. But about 25% of what we try to recycle is too contaminated to go anywhere but the landfill, up from about 7% a decade ago. So it’s important not to recycle but for all of us to maintain good recycling habits.
By educating and engaging individuals to recycle more of the right things the right way at home, at work, on the go, and like Keep Liberty Beautiful is doing this Friday by engaging our school system, we can help make recycling more economically viable, creating jobs and providing recyclables to manufacture new products and packaging while continuing to reap more significant environmental and community benefits.
Over the last several decades, recycling in America has certainly increased significantly. The national recycling rate has increased over the past 30 years. The current recycling rate is 34%, and we still have over $9 billion in recyclable items thrown in the trash yearly. There is an urgent need for all of us to contribute to recycling efforts to reduce waste. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of America Recycles Day this year, I urge you to recycle and reuse more of the stuff you use and reduce more of the waste you create to minimize harm to our environment.
Join us in recycling more!
Recycling does make a difference that you can contribute to every day. When you recycle, you help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators. It also conserves natural resources and prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect as many new raw materials as possible. Your individual actions, no matter how small, have a significant impact on the environment. You have the power to make a difference.
Remember, KLB Recycle It! Fairs are this Saturday, November 16, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at two convenient locations: Liberty County Community Complex 9397 East Oglethorpe in Midway and Walthourville City Hall 222 Busbee Drive in Walthourville Also, the Free Shred Day is on November 16 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and it is at the Liberty County Community Complex in Midway only. Make sure that the papers are not wet and are metal-free.
I must remind you that, on Saturday, November 16, Keep Liberty Beautiful is partnering with 104 Logistic LLC in Midway to hold a Tire Amnesty Day for Liberty County residents. The event will be held at the Liberty County Community Complex, 9397 East Oglethorpe Hwy, Midway, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. For more information, contact Keep Liberty Beautiful at (912) 880-4888 or klcb@libertycountyga.gov. We encourage you to participate in these events and be part of this collective effort to make a difference. Together, we can achieve more.