Every three months Americans landfill enough aluminum to rebuild the country’s entire commercial air fleet and each year they throw away enough office paper to build a 12-foot high wall of paper that could stretch from New York to Seattle. It is reasons such as these that the National Recycling Coalition named November 15 as America Recycles Day – and although you won’t find any Hallmark cards in the stores to mark the day, it is the ideal time to recycle any leftover greetings cards you do have in the house.
Now in its tenth year, the day aims to encourage Americans to improve their recycling habits at home and work, and buy more products made from recycled materials. Events will be taking place at schools and community centers all over the country to promote recycling, and the Keep America Beautiful organization will also be holding a cell phone roundup with the aim of collecting some of the 130 million cell phones that are sitting unused in drawers and closets across the country.
Around half of American households are now served by curbside collection programs, but currently only a third of household waste is recycled or composted – that figure may greatly increase, however, if schemes such as the Recyclebank program continue to expand.
The program, which currently operates in east coast states such as New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York offers a financial incentive to encourage people to recycle more. Householders signing up to the scheme receive reward points based on the weight of the items they recycle, and the points can then be exchanged for discount vouchers for a whole host of partner organizations, such as Green Mountain Organic Coffee, Patagonia and Ikea.
If you already recycle your paper, glass and cans, though, then don’t forget about obsolete electronics too. Old and broken CD’s, video cassettes and vinyl records can all have a new lease of life as tabletop surfaces, coat hangers or new CD cases when they are recycled, so on America Recycles Day clear out your closets and shelves and get recycling.
