2020 America Recycles Billboard Contest Winner Announced

Eastbrook Middle School 7th grader, Bricia Manzanares, is the overall winner of the 2020 America Recycles Day Billboard Design Contest hosted by the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority’s program Target Recycling at School.

The winning design will be displayed on two billboards in Whitfield County (one on Highway 41 and the other on Thornton Avenue) during the month of November to recognize America Recycles Day on November 15th.

Ms. Manzaneres’ design includes the phrase “Recycle with Recycling Ben” as one of the themes of the contest. The artwork features the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority mascot, Recycling Ben alongside our most commonly recycled items, a cardboard box, water bottle, and mail. Every time you drive past it, it can serve as a reminder that it is important for you to recycle your paper and cardboard because every ton recycled saves 17 trees.

The billboard design contest, now in its eleventh year, has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners from each school that submitted entries. The three winners, listed below, received a certificate of participation and a gift bag with items made from recycled materials. The first place overall, who is the winner of the billboard, was selected from the first-place design from each grade level.  

Eastbrook Middle

1)     Bricia Manzanares

2)     Janyce Hernandez

3)     Olivia Pulliam

Christian Heritage

1)     Adelyn Martinez

2)    Maddie Retelle

3)    Alexandria Brewer

Target Recycling at School provides recycling collection services and environmental education opportunities to schools in Whitfield County. For more information, call 706-278-5001 or visit www.DWSWA.org.

America Recycles Day is a community-driven event dedicated to promoting recycling awareness, commitment, and action in the U.S. through its partnership with Keep America Beautiful. It’s celebrated annually on November 15. For more information on recycling, and to take the pledge to #BeRecycled visit www.AmericaRecyclesDay.org. 

National Nonprofit Presents 2019 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program Grant to Keep Dalton Whitfield Beautiful

Executive Director, Amy Hartline, poses with one of the specially ordered Ballot Bins to demonstrate how people can vote for one of two options using cigarette litter.

Keep America Beautiful®, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, announced it has awarded a 2019 Cigarette Litter Prevention Program® grant to Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful to help it combat the most commonly littered item in America. Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful is one of 50 organizations receiving a Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) merit-based grant. Keep Dalton Whitfield Beautiful’s grant award of $2,000 will be used to install special “ballot bins” to encourage people to put their cigarettes in the right place. These bins allow people to “vote” using their cigarettes in a poll with two different options.  “We hope to make keeping our town clean more fun and interactive. That way everyone can feel more pride in the community they’ve created.”, said Executive Director, Amy Hartline.

Communities implementing the CLPP in 2018 reported an average 62 percent reduction of cigarette litter, even greater than the previous year’s average reduction of 52 percent. Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grant funding empowers communities to help mitigate the economic, environmental and quality of-life impact of cigarette butt littering. “Litter is both the smallest and largest problem at the same time,” said Jerred Jones, program director for the CLPP. “Keep America Beautiful is dedicated to educating consumers on the hazards of littering in public spaces and providing the tools to reduce litter. Access to ash receptacles and portable pocket ashtrays are crucial to changing littering behaviors.”

The CLPP, created by Keep America Beautiful in 2002, is the nation's largest program aimed at eliminating cigarette butt and cigar tip litter. Since its inception, the program has been successfully implemented in more than 1,800 urban, suburban and rural communities nationwide. Over the past decade, participating communities have consistently cut cigarette butt litter by 50 percent based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after program implementation. Research has shown that even self-reported “non-litterers” often don’t consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground to be "littering." Keep America Beautiful has found that cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points—areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants, among others. The CLPP is supported by funding from Altria, Reynolds American, and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company.

Visit www.KeepDaltonWhitfieldBeautiful.org to register for the KDWB newsletter or call 706-278-5001 to find out how you can volunteer or participate in events

Billboard Design Contest Winner for 2018 Announced

Ms. Martinez’s design includes the phrase “I want to be recycled!” one of the themes of the contest. The artwork is an illustration of recyclables lining up to jump into a recycling bin. They are happy and excited to be turned into new, useful objects instead of being wasted.

Valley Point Middle School 6th grader, Alicia Martinez, is the overall winner of the 2018 America Recycles Day Billboard Design Contest hosted by the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority’s program Target Recycling at School. The winning design will be displayed on two billboards in Whitfield County (one on Cleveland Hwy., and the other on E. Walnut Ave.) during the month of November.

The billboard design contest, now in its ninth year, has a 1st place winner from each grade level including 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The three winners, listed below, received a certificate of participation and a gift bag with items made from recycled materials. The first place overall, who is the winner of the billboard, was selected from the first-place design from each grade level.

Winners for 2018

The winners all from Valley Point Middle that placed in the America Recycles Day Billboard Design Contest for 2018. From left to right: Alicia Martinez, Rhonda Burdette filling in for Javier Ayabar, and Javiar Torres.

·         1st Place in 6th grade and Overall Winner –Alicia Martinez, Valley Point Middle School

·         1st Place in 7th grade – Javier J. Torres, Valley Point Middle School

·         1st  Place in 8th grade - Javier Ayabar–, Valley Point Middle School

Target Recycling at School provides recycling collection services and environmental education opportunities to schools in Whitfield County. For more information, call 706-278-5001 or visit www.DWSWA.org.

America Recycles Day is a community-driven event dedicated to promoting recycling awareness, commitment, and action in the U.S. thru its partnership with Keep America Beautiful. It’s celebrated annually on November 15. For more information on recycling, and to take the pledge to #BeRecycled visit www.AmericaRecyclesDay.org. 

2018 School Beautification Grant Winners

(Dalton, GA, September 21, 2018) – Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual School Beautification Grants for 2018. The committee for Beautification and Community Greening established the grant program in celebration of National Planting Day, which took place September 8 and is celebrated through the end of October.

Public and private schools in the Dalton, GA and Whitfield County were invited to apply for funding to implement a project related to planting native plants and beautifying the community. Each project aims to improve the visual aspects of the facility or provide an educational opportunity related to plants. The grants range from $250 to $500 which encompassed $83 to each team of one grade.

This year the following five schools were awarded a grant for their National Planting Day project:

1.    Coahulla Creek High School: Creating the Captivating Courtyard of Coahulla Creek

2.    New Hope Middle School: Georgia Native Plants Beautification Project

3.    Park Creek Elementary School: Berry Beautiful

4.    Morris Innovative High School: MIHS Pep Club Garden and Picnic Area

5.    Dalton Middle School: Team Trees

Projects will be completed by December 3 and each recipient will submit a project summary by December 21 to showcase their work. Visit Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful’s website www.KeepDaltonWhitfieldBeautiful.org or follow them on Facebook to get updates on the progress of these projects.  

National Planting Day is celebrated annually by Keep America Beautiful in the fall as an opportunity to encourage volunteers to plant native species restoring ecological balance to the environment while creating greener, more beautiful communities. Learn more about this event at www.kab.org.