Celebrate America Recycles Day with local activities

During November, take the pledge to #BeRecycled and commit to living the “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” lifestyle in honor of America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, a national initiative of Keep America Beautiful. Visit www.americarecyclesday.org to take the pledge and join the rest of the country in this movement.

By taking the #BeRecycled pledge, individuals commit to learning about recycling in their community; to consistently and correctly recycle; to reduce personal waste; and to buy products made from recycled content. Participants are encouraged to help spread the word by educating and encouraging friends, family and neighbors to recycle in their community and to integrate the act of recycling and buying recycled-content throughout their daily routines.

Through this initiative, Keep America Beautiful is helping communities spotlight recycling on a local level by educating students and community members on how and what to recycle. The organization provides an array of tools and resources to help improve recycling in America.

There are many actions each of us can take to reduce our environmental impact and support a clean community. One of the easiest actions to take every day is to recycle. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, each of us generates more than four pounds of trash daily. Of that amount, 1.5 pounds is recycled or composted. There are more items that can be recycled; but just as important, it is about recycling the right things. To make recycling more economically efficient and to provide cleaner material to manufacturers to make new products — putting the right items in the recycling bin makes a big difference.

America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day and coast-to-coast community-driven awareness campaign dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. It has been held on — and in the weeks leading into — Nov. 15 since 1997.

Recently the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority hosted an America Recycles Day Billboard Design contest. During November, you’ll see two billboards in the area with a recycling message designed by a local middle-schooler. The theme was “I Want To Be Recycled!” and is based on the Keep America Beautiful campaign by the same name. Learn more about the campaign at www.berecycled.org.

On Friday, Nov. 16, families can stop by the Dalton-Whitfield County Public Library to participate in a "Trees and Things Storytime" focused on the importance of recycling. Storytime is great for pre-school age kids to hear stories and complete activities. Attendees will take part in a guessing game and yoga. For more information, contact Lizzy Stuckey at (706) 876-1360.

Teachers may be interested in participating in the Georgia Recycling Coalition’s Read for Recycling program during the week of Nov. 14. Students from K to 12 are challenged to read a minimum of five waste reduction or recycling-related books, record them in an entry form, and journal something interesting they learned from each book. Entries should be mailed in no later than Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Six students will be randomly selected to win a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble, while the teacher with the most student participation will win a class set of recycling-themed books for their classroom. Contest details and forms are available at www.georgiarecycles.org.

After taking the pledge to #BeRecycled visit www.dwswa.org to learn about recycling options in Whitfield County and the city of Dalton. Choose the Recycling 101 page or the educational resources available to local schools.