I know, most resolutions are already ditched by Jan. 8, but if recycling more or being more environmentally minded was one of your resolutions (and it should have been), then I have an opportunity for you.
Recycling your old phone books and those gazillion sales catalogs that you received during the holiday season is going to be so easy for you this month. Not only can you drop off these items at all of our current Liberty County Recycling Centers, we will have extra drop-off boxes for you Thursday through Feb. 15 at various convenient places around town. So while you are running errands these next few weeks, grab those phone books and catalogs and send them to recycling heaven.
That local phone book contains hundreds of pages of paper that can be recycled into other useful paper products. Just think how many trees could be used for other purposes if every household and business in Liberty County recycled their phone books.
Paper products can often be recycled again and again — many types of paper can be recycled five to seven times, according to www.epa.gov. But we need your help to make that happen. A number of sources estimate that around 10 percent of landfill space is taken up by these books. Landfill space is a premium commodity, so let’s not waste it on these books. A lot of trees give their lives for us to “let our fingers do the walking” through those Yellow Pages. So I encourage you to round those books up and give this paper a chance to be used again.
We will set up drop-off boxes in several locations around the county for your convenience from Thursday through Feb. 15. As I mentioned, they also can be dropped off in the magazine-recycling bins at any Liberty County Recycling Center.
Here are additional locations for drop-off:
• The Liberty County Annex Lobby on Main Street in Hinesville
• Hinesville City Hall lobby on M.L. King Drive
• Flemington City Hall on Old Sunbury Road
• Riceboro City Hall on Highway 17
• Midway City Hall at the Midway Mini-Mall
• The Liberty County Community Complex in Midway
• Walthourville accepts them in recycle bin pick up
If you are employed with a local business, industry or school and have a substantial number of books, call Keep Liberty Beautiful at 880-4888 and we will try to arrange a courtesy pick-up for your business. Mrs. Phillips with the board of education office is a great example because she always makes sure each January that the books and catalogs are collected for recycling as the new phone books arrive for distribution.  So follow her example and collect them at your business, too.
If you are not convinced that recycling can make a difference, consider these quick facts from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs:
• Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.
• In 2006, a record 53.4 percent of the paper consumed in the United States was recovered for recycling. That is more than 53 million tons recycled. That 53 percent recycled is certainly impressive, but actually that means that another 50 million tons still went into landfills. What a waste.
• More than 36 percent of the fiber used to make new paper products in the United States now comes from recycled sources. Using these recycled sources not only saves all those trees, it saves energy — and often money, too!
• Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
Keep your resolution to recycle more with just a little bit of effort. We want to provide an opportunity for everyone to recycle with extra easy-does-it drop-off sites, so use them. Trees everywhere will thank you for it.