America Recycles Day, Every Day

Did you know that America Recycles Day is Tuesday, November 15? This annual celebration is organized by Keep America Beautiful, with mission and programs to prevent litter, reduce waste, and beautify the United States.

While there were no America Recycles Day-related projects planned in Boston at the time of writing, anyone can sign the electronic pledge to learn about local recycling efforts and begin recycling a new material.

Recycling Isn't Just for Paper Anymore

A great resource to help fulfill your America Recycles Day pledge is www.earth911.com, a searchable database with many listings for businesses that recycle materials – including many that are not accepted through local curbside pickup. In my cursory search, locations were found that accepted cooking oil, bikes, shoes and even baby strollers.

Single Stream

At the NonProfit Center, we utilize single stream recycling for all office spaces, meeting rooms and shared kitchens. We recently converted to single stream because we believed our recycling rates would increase if people no longer needed to sort out paper, plastic, glass and metal into separate bins.

Our recycling service provides monthly data about recycling rates so that we are able to track the effectiveness of our program over time. In this past year, the center’s recycling team recovered 18.4 tons of co-mingled materials from blue bins with the collection rate ranging from an estimated 14 to 17.5 pounds recovered per person per month.

Special Opportunities to Recycle

The center also periodically offers electronics recycling for office and personal items. As part of these efforts, the NonProfit Center partners with organizations to create special opportunities for recycling and recovery.

In October, the center will accept cell phone donations to support Domestic Violence Awareness Month with local nonprofit Safe Havens. Tuesday, October 25, the center will begin accept used book donations to support the Great American Book Drive. For the fourth year running, the center will be grateful to partner with Second Chances to host a Fall Clothing Donation Drive.

Recycling can have profound impact in reducing our waste stream and redistributing materials to others in need. We look forward to learning about new ways to expand our efforts at the NonProfit Center and in the broader community in celebration of America Recycles Day, every day.