Want to help protect the environment? Why not spend some time on America Recycles Day, November 15th, looking for new opportunities to recycle throughout the year?

Answer the challenge! The world is calling on you...

Keeping up good recycling habits at home, work, and on the go can help combat climate change. By reusing, recycling, and being smarter in the amounts and types of materials used, people can save energy, use fewer natural resources, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country are making a difference, simply by keeping plastic bottles, paper, metals, unwanted electronics, and other recyclable materials out of the waste stream.

Five Recycling Best Practices

• Make it Easy – Keep lots of In-House Recycling Containers around so they are easy to access and easier to empty into the larger ones outside. Participate in a curbside recycling program; otherwise, know where the nearest recycling center is to you.
• Make it Thorough – Don’t forget to recycle your dead batteries, old electronics, and printer toner cartridges. You can recycle more than just paper products, plastic bottles and containers, and aluminum soda cans nowadays. Every bit counts!
• Dispose of Household Toxics Correctly – Paint and household chemicals are not meant to be thrown away, put in the sewer, or flushed down the toilet. Please be responsible and dispose of these by bringing them to their designated disposal units. To find out where to bring harmful chemicals click here: Earth911.org
• Practice Composting – Save space in landfills and give back to the earth the nutruients found in food peels and seeds. Come Springtime, you will be thanking yourself because you won't need expensive fertilizer/topsoil for gardening/landscaping.
• Grow Your Own Vegatable Garden – There's nothing quite like an organic garden. Yum. Use your compost as fertilizer.

The lifecycle energy savings of recycling rather than land-filling one aluminum can is equivalent to the energy use of a laptop for 5 hours, a 60-Watt incandescent light bulb for 4 hours, or a 60-Watt compact fluorescent light bulb for 20 hours. Even recycling one can makes a difference. Recycling 100 counts that much more!

Now is a great time to think about your role in creating a sustainable environment by being responsible consumers and always disposing of your waste in the best environmental manner. Products are created from raw materials that are transported and processed, distributed, consumed, reused and/or recycled again; these are these same products which would have been ultimately disposed of in a landfill. Each stage of a material's lifecycle creates impacts on the environment.

By making smarter choices, consuming less, and especially reusing and recycling things, each of us can contribute to a healthier and more sustainable environment.

More information on America Recycles Day go to their homepage

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