November 15th: America Recycles Day

Next Friday is America Recycles Day, “a nationally-recognized initiative dedicated to encouraging people to recycle.” The idea for America Recycles Day initially began in 1994 by two employees at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and was first celebrated as Texas Recycles Day. Three years later, these two employees presented their idea for America Recycles Day at the National Recycling Coalition Congress and it was “embraced immediately.” (Read more here) In 2010, the organization Keep America Beautiful took the helm of America Recycles Day. 

 

Formed in 1953, Keep America Beautiful began as “a group of corporate and civic leaders [that] met in New York City to bring the public and private sectors together to develop and promote a national cleanliness ethic.” The organization has had many milestones since the beginning which you can read more about here. Keep America Beautiful has spent 60 years with the mission to “inspire and educate people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment.”Their three main objectives are to “End Littering,” “Improve Recycling,” and “Beautify Communities.”

 

The reason Chicago Textile Recycling celebrates America Recycles Day is because we believe not only in the importance of recycling textiles, but in the importance of recycling in totality. Our Earth will not be the same with millions of pounds of textiles in our landfill; it is not a sustainable way of life. But our Earth also will not be the same covered in litter and trash, with recycling contaminated and without people taking physical care of our world and cleaning it up. 

 

You may have seen a few posts already of challenges you can take as America Recycles Day draws near, but hopefully through learning more in this blog, you will care more about the why, and experience a longer lasting desire to make changes in your lifestyle and care for our planet.

 

What Can I Do?

End Littering

The first main objective Keep America Beautiful has is to “End Littering.” On their website, you can find numerous resources and references about littering to educate yourself on what a huge issue we face when it comes to littering, and how you can help make a difference.

The organization shares that “Litter is costly to clean up, impacts our quality of life and economic development, and eventually ends up in our waterways and oceans.” One of the big programs they run in regards to the problem of littering is their “Cigarette Litter Prevention Program.” This program offers grants to provide communities with educational materials, ashtrays and ash receptacles to encourage the population to properly dispose of cigarettes. You can read more here. They also offer free resources for the general public that wants to become involved in spreading awareness about this part of the littering problem.

 

Improve Recycling

The second main objective (“Improve Recycling”) and probably easiest thing you can do to help is learning about what you should and should not recycle. Chicagoland and many cities make it easy to recycle by offering recycling bins at your home to fill and place outside for collection on trash day. All you need to know is what you can and cannot recycle so that the recycling doesn’t become contaminated by plastic bags, food, chemicals, or other substances.  To find out what is and isn’t accepted, check out SWALCO’s recycling guidelines. One further step you can make with recycling is to “Take the Pledge” for America Recycles Day. Find out more about this on their website.

 

If you own items that you want to recycle, but are not recyclable according to the guidelines on the SWALCO website, check out their “Where Do I Recycle This?” page to look up exactly where to recycle the items you have. 

 

For clothing and textiles, Chicago Textile Recycling partners with SWALCO in collecting donations. So find your closest CTR bin and donate old clothes and textiles to us! We will keep them out of landfills and see that they get put to great use!

 

Keep America Beautiful’s big event to reach their objective in improving recycling is “America Recycles Day.” Keep reading to find out more about events in your area to volunteer with for America Recycles Day.

 

Beautify Communities

The third main objective of Keep America Beautiful is to “Beautify Communities.” One of the big programs this organization runs to reach this objective is the “Great American Cleanup.” Much of this cleanup also ties in with their first objective to end littering as this event “began a litter cleanup initiative designed to aesthetically improve our environment by creating cleaner parks, streetscapes and public spaces through litter removal and elimination” and continues to prioritize this as “the very heart of the campaign.”

For the Great American Cleanup, there are also tree plantings, flower and community garden plantings, and community education that involves education about reducing, reusing, and recycling as well. To learn more about the Great American Cleanup, check out their website.

 

Attend an Event

To come back to the heart of this blog, which is truly about next Friday, America RecycIes Day, we want our readers to know ways you can get involved in your area.

 

Saturday, November 9th from 10-2 – Kent Fuller Air Station Prairie/Tyner Center at 2400 Compass Rd, Glenview –  America Recycles Day

Glenview Park District is celebrating America Recycles Day with an event to spread awareness on how to increase your recycling habits at home and at work. Family activities and crafts are offered at this all ages event.

 

Saturday, November 16th from 1-4 – Anita Purves Nature Center at 1505 N Broadway Ave, Urbana – America Recycles Day & Creative Re-Use Competition

“Explore old and new ways to recycle household waste. There will be crafts, activities, information and MORE. Make your own creation from reused or repurposed materials at home before the event, and enter to win an award in the fifth annual Creative Reuse Competition. Try your hand at turning recycled fibers into beautiful pieces of paper during the Pulp to Paper between 1:30-2:30pm.”

Also, if you are feeling entrepreneurial, you can create your own event for America Recycles Day. Contact your local parks and rec and check out the America Recycles day website for ideas and accessing their toolkit to organize your own recycling awareness event.

 

Why Recycle?

So what is so important about recycling anyway? Why is there a need for America Recycles Day? Recycle Across America states that “recycling is the top action society can do to simultaneously improve: the environment, the economy, sustainable manufacturing and to prevent waste from going into oceans.” Although the “U.S. recycling levels are currently 21.4%,” these numbers have not improved in 20 years. The largest problem facing recycling is “public confusion” about what to recycle and how to recycle. With the help of Keep America Beautiful, America Recycles Day, SWALCO and our readers spreading the word about how to correctly recycle, we can be a part of the change in raising that number, reducing landfill waste and creating a healthier planet a little bit at a time.