Waste Management of New York recently joined with Keep America Beautiful to celebrate America Recycles Day on Monday, November 15.
The only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging people to recycle and buy recycled products, America Recycles Day celebrates one of the easiest ways for people to get involved in sustainability: recycling.
“America Recycles Day is intended to draw attention to recycling as a behavior, and also as a movement – something that people are doing and can feel good about,” said Rachel Amar, community and government relations manager for Waste Management of New York. “It’s one day that we can stop and pause and reflect on why recycling is important.”
New York City residents currently recycle less than 20 percent of their total refuse. By increasing the recycling of paper, glass and metal, New Yorkers can reduce the amount of trash going to landfills, save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
“Manufacturing new bottles out of ground glass or new cans out of recycled material requires less energy than making these containers using raw materials,” Amar noted. “Conserving energy is the quickest and easiest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.”
To put the savings in everyday terms, recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV or computer for three hours. Recycling a one-foot high stack of newspapers saves enough energy to heat a home for 17 hours.
“Of course, we should be recycling all 365 days per year,” said Amar. “It’s probably the easiest thing any individual can do to have an effect on natural resources, on energy conservation and on their carbon footprint, which we know has ramifications in climate change and other big-picture environmental issues.”
Waste Management currently operates more than 100 recycling facilities nationwide and processes approximately 8.5 million tons of recyclables per year – enough material to fill the Empire State Building over 11 times.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (KAB) became the national steward of America Recycles Day last year. It is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization with a network of over 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations.
