America Recycles Day, November 15, 2019
The 23rd Annual “America Recycles Day” (ARD) as always will be on November 15, 2019. ARD is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to recycle and to buy recycled content products. Each year since inception in 1997, the ARD campaign has increased in awareness and has continued to evolve. Since 1997, at least 79,850 Americans have taken the Pledge to increase their recycling habits at home and at work.
The US Environmental Protection Agency now has an America Recycles Webpage: https://www.epa.gov/americarecycles. Should NCRA also join the list of “Pledge Signatories”, current count at 167? See https://www.epa.gov/americarecycles/forms/america-recycles-pledge#PledgeSignatories. Consider taking an Individual Pledge in solidarity at https://americarecyclesday.org/pledge/. Encourage others to consider doing likewise.
Since 1997, at least 2,860 events have been held nationwide, typically at least 100 per year. For 2019, there will be at least 12 ARD events in California, with only 3 in Northern California:
- Nov. 13 – City of San Leandro, America Recycles Day event encourages residents to recycle unusual types of items, including mercury thermometers and thermostats, fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, incandescent bulbs and household batteries. Marina Community Center, 9 am – 1 pm.
- Nov. 15 – Windsor Library, Sonoma County. We will be hosting an event to raise awareness of recycling practices, encourage others to sign the pledge, and hold an e-waste and eyeglass drop-off event. We plan to have booths with general information provided by the waste hauling company, have a station making recycled paper, a station to opt out of phone book and advertising mailing lists, and a creative reuse station. Also invited are the Sonoma Food Waste Coalition with information on food waste recovery, and Zero Waste Sonoma with information on county resources. 12 – 2 pm.
- Nov. 16 – Waste Management is hosting an America Recycles Day celebration at the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station located at 8491 Fruitridge Road. Join us for a free, fun family event where you and your kids can learn how to Recycle Right! Play games, win prizes and ask all the questions you have been curious or confused about with recycling. Get a behind the scenes tour of the recycling facility and see what happens when the most common contaminants get into the system. 10 am – 2 pm.
For 18 consecutive years, from 1999 to 2016, each sitting U.S. President, W. Clinton, G. W. Bush and B. Obama, has issued a descriptive Proclamation “America Recycles Day”, on or about November 15. See them all at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/proclamations.php. Unfortunately, the succession of annual US Presidential ARD Proclamations has ended, with President Donald Trump electing to not issue such a proclamation for 2017 or 2018, and unlikely for 2019.
Consider reading and sharing the last 2016 Proclamation by President Obama, for encouragement to help transform the public from the garbage as usual paradigm, more towards a Zero Waste mentality. Keeping more and more valuable resources out of dwindling landfills, in part by raising citizens awareness and conscientiousness, remains a collective ongoing campaign vital to our common welfare. Thanks for doing your part.
