UK Celebrates America Recycles Day
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 15, 2018) — For the fourth year in a row the University of Kentucky will be celebrating America Recycles Day. The program, operated and managed since 1997 by Keep America Beautiful, helps to end littering, improve recycling and beautify communities.
UK will be focusing on the "Y" of recycling complete with a photo opportunity where you can become the "Y" in recycling. At each tabling event, UK Recycling will have 6-foot tall cardboard letters that spell out R-E-C-Y-C-L-E, and give you the chance to stand in as the “Y." UK Recycling is encouraging everyone to pledge to recycle both on and off campus and think about why they should recycle. Anyone who takes the pledge will receive a free T-shirt made from recycled plastic bottles.
“There are always questions about what is recyclable on campus. We want to provide opportunities to talk with students, faculty and staff about what is recyclable,” says Joanna Ashford, UK Recycling coordinator. “Currently, we accept plastic bottles and jugs (only), aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles and jars, cardboard and paper.”
This month is full of opportunities for both students and faculty and staff. UK Recycling will also be hosting tabling events on campus to celebrate America Recycles Day where you can sign the pledge and learn more about what UK recycles. If you cannot make it out to one of the tabling events, you can always sign the pledge online here.
In addition to the tabling opportunities, UK Recycling will host recycling activities and presentations for any department interested on campus. The recycling prize wheel, which was at Taylor Hall for College of Education on Nov. 13, will make another appearance at Patterson Office Tower for College of Arts and Sciences on Monday, Nov. 19.
Items recycled on campus through the All-in-One program go to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Recycling Center. From there, the material is sent to recycling companies throughout the U.S., including Kentucky.
"Recycling is so important! Not just because it keeps usable resources out of the landfill, but because it helps to create jobs in Kentucky,” Ashford said. “Recycling material processed at the Lexington Recycling Center supports over 6,000 jobs, with 770 of them in Kentucky.”
Local recycling facilities such as Novelis located in Berea, Play Mart in Somerset, International Paper in Maysville and Signode in Florence, process UK's recycled material and give it new life. An aluminum can recycled on campus today can be back on the store shelves in just 60 days.
In 2017, UK recycled a total of 1,015 tons through the All-in-One program (paper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, etc.), with the total weight of recycled items at 2,423 tons (includes electronic recycling, hospital plastics and confidential paper). Just six months into this year, the university has recycled 552 tons. If the same rate of progress continues for the rest of the year, the weight will increase by 9 percent with a total of 1,105 tons of general recycling.
Additionally, from 2016 to 2017 the university experienced an increase of 37 percent in All-in-One recycling.
For more information about how to give objects a second life or to participate, contact recycle@uky.edu.