Keyna Cory: Recycling push coming to Capitol

Tuesday will be Florida Recycles Day at the Florida Capitol. It’s the third year the Florida Recycling Partnership and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have teamed up to promote recycling. Displays will be on the first floor of the Capitol from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Florida Recycling Partnership is a coalition of top Florida businesses and associations with the mission of educating policy makers and the general public on the benefits of recycling. Our members believe in the symbol – reduce, reuse
and recycle!  They are doing their part to reduce the waste in their day-to-day business, reuse materials whenever possible, and recycle items that can be recycled.

At this year’s event, there will be a “Recycling Pledge Card” for people to sign. The pledge is simple:

• Learn. I will find out what materials are collected for recycling in my community;
• Act. Reduce my personal waste by recycling.  Within the next month, I will recycle more; and
• Share. In the next month, I will encourage one family member or one friend to take the pledge.

It’s the same pledge Keep America Beautiful asks people to sign in conjunction with America Recycles Day scheduled for Nov. 15.

Florida has a goal to recycle 75 percent of its municipal solid waste by 2020. It’s a lofty goal but we can definitely move the needle. The national rate for recycling is about 34.5 percent. Florida is way ahead with a recycling rate of about 50 percent.

But we need everyone’s help to reach our goal.

Florida Recycling Partnership members recycle every day. They are recycling within the confines of their business as well as providing customers recycling opportunities.

Here are a few examples of what can be recycled:

• Plastic bottles can be recycled to make new items like carpet and filling for jackets.
• Aluminum cans are recycled to become new cans and if you recycle one aluminum can you save enough energy to power a television for three hours.
• Plastic bags become baskets you find in grocery stores and planters.

So join us for Florida Recycles Day at the Capitol.  If you can’t be in Tallahassee, go to our website and take the pledge!

Keyna Cory is executive director of the Florida Recycling Partnership.