November 15th was America Recycles Day, and for the fourth year in a row, UK Recycling celebrated in style. America Recycles Day has been hosted by Keep America Beautiful and celebrated across the country since 1997. America Recycles Day aims to end littering, improve recycling, and beautify communities. All month, UK Recycling tabled across campus with 6-foot tall cardboard letters and t-shirt giveaways to engage students, faculty, and staff in a discussion on recycling. Upon first glance, most people though the UK Recycling made a tragic spelling mistake with their giant letters, only to discover they wanted YOU to be the “Y” and make it R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.
This was not only a good photo opportunity but was meant to start a conversation of “Y” we should all recycle. Recycling not only helps avoid landfilling items, but also it creates jobs—the material processed by the Lexington Recycling Center supports over 6,000 jobs, with 770 of them in Kentucky. Hopefully, reminding people of the impact of recycling encourages them to remember that our bottles, cans, cardboard, and paper are a valuable resource to keep out of the landfill.
In promoting this goal, UK Recycling offered faculty, staff & students t-shirts made of recycled plastic bottles in exchange for taking a pledge to recycle and to learn more about recycling efforts on campus. So far, there have been almost 1,000 pledges! The University’s dedication to recycling has also been visible in the amount the campus has recycled. Based on data from recycling already collected the year, UK Recycling is projecting the All-in-One recycling program will capture 1,105 tons of general recycling. If this projection is reached, it will mark a 9 percent increase from last year’s 1,015 tons.
If this has left you thinking, “what a shame I missed a chance to promote recycling by wearing a wonderfully soft and free shirt,” you’re in luck! The pledge is still available online here.
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