JOIN THE MOVEMENT TO RECYCLE MORE THIS NOV. 15—

Recycling efforts at Wofford are increasingly improving, with a lasting presence of Junk Matters and Compost Matters on campus, future plans in the new strategic vision, and the discussion and initiation of a recycling venture at Fraternity Row.

Co-Founder of Compost Matters and senior Wofford environmental studies major Jacob Strehl says, “For Compost Matters and Junk Matters, we want people to really start thinking about where their trash is going.”

National America Recycles Day is Nov. 15, and while South Carolina’s only official sanctioned event is in North Myrtle Beach, Wofford students can get involved in other ways. The event is an initiative of Keep America Beautiful, and it is meant as a day to educate and motivate in order to make recycling more prevalent across the Unites States year round.

“For decades the mindset has been that as long as the trash is being picked up, no one really cares where it goes. This is simply not the case anymore. National America Recycles Day is a great way for people to better understand their waste streams and the benefits recycling can and will have on our nation moving forward,” says Strehl.

One way to get the conversation started is to join the virtual conversation via twitter. Nov. 12, America Recycles Day is promoting a twitter chat using the hashtag #AmericaRecyclesDay at 8:00 p.m. ET to tweet about what and how you recycle in each room of the house, and to share and learn ways to do more recycling. The chat is planned to last about an hour, and America Recycles Day will be releasing prizes to some of the tweeters.

Keep America Beautiful and America Recycles Day have also launched a “Recycling Selfie” promotion. The America Recycles Day #RecyclingSelfie Sweepstakes is designed to aid in raising awareness about and promoting recycling in the United States in conjunction with National America Recycles Day. With the Sweepstakes there are also prizes involved, and your uploaded photo will be showcased on AmericaRecyclesDay.org. The Sweepstakes began on Oct. 22 and will end on Nov. 20. All you have to do is upload a photo of you recycling to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram with the hashtag #RecyclingSelfie.

Another way to get involved is to simply join the movement and the cause: recycle more. You could start with the recipe from America Recycles Day involving the pumpkin seeds leftover from Halloween, or just taking the time to separate your recyclable products into the recycling bin. Over 51,000 American’s have taken the pledge on America Recycles Day’s website to recycle more frequently. Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet every three months, enough steel to reconstruct Manhattan, and enough wood to heat 5 million homes for 200 years. U.S. waste disposal costs exceed $100 billion annually.

“New landfill sites are scarce and moving farther away from population centers increasing handling and transportation costs. Recycling infrastructure is becoming more important to our society and is becoming a more cost effective way to handle our waste,” says Strehl.

As Terry Gifford, a visiting scholar at the Centre for Writing and Environment at Bath Spa University said in his Santee Cooper Lecture Series in Sustainability and Energy Issues at Wofford College in October, “Data alone doesn’t do the job. We need sensibility.” We need awareness, receptiveness and responsiveness.

To get involved in America Recycles Day or for information on how to get started recycling, visit AmericaRecylesDay.org.