By Shelley Heckert

Director KC Recycling Depot

WARSAW — Most of us have seen the ad campaign, “I Want to Be”, where an aluminum can dreams of becoming a bicycle or an empty shampoo bottle dreams of turning into a bench. Of course, there is only one way – to be recycled! This campaign was created by Keep America Beautiful, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging citizens to take action every day to improve and beautify local communities.

America Recycles Day is an initiative of KAB (Keep America Beautiful). It is an awareness campaign encouraging people to take recycling action. What action can you take? Recycle plastic bottles in the bathroom (an oft forgotten recyclable)?  Recycle your out of date mobile devices? Place that junk mail in the recycle bin versus the trash can?  KAB encourages you to make your pledge official, by going to the americarecyclesday.org website. Indeed, over 66,470 people already have pledged.

Another component of America Recycles Day is to buy recycled. Many daily use products have recycled content in them.  When shopping, for example, choose a paper towel made from 100% recycled content. The loop has just been closed on the recycling process and demand for recycled materials has increased! Look for recycled content declarations on your product labels.  If you see the words “post consumers” on the label, even better. This means the recycled content material came from recycle bins of people like you and me. Make your pledge to buy and support recycling in this manner.

At the KC Recycling Depot Eco Store, there are a wide variety of recycled content items. While a retail establishment, the purpose of the store is to educate and encourage people to see the possibilities of recycling. The store is full of unique gift items: Birdhouses and toys made from milk jugs and kitchen aprons made from billboards to name a few.  A recent addition to the store are items from Chico Bag. The grocery bags, produce bags and duffel bags from Chico bag are all made from #1 plastic, i.e. water bottles. Some of the offerings from Chico Bag are bamboo cutlery sets and snack bags to help people with food waste with their packed lunched. Stop in during the Depot’s open hours for a visit or schedule a tour with a group and learn the history behind each item.

America Recycles Day will be celebrated at the KC Recycling Depot, Saturday, Nov. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Eco Store will have specials and there will be lots of prizes and education to help people reduce their food waste. Other specials include a Great Cupboard Cleanout food collection, veteran’s discounts, a flag collection and more.

See www.kcrecycling.com for the full list of activities.