Nine Ways the Country Marked America Recycles Day

Bathrooms, bags and gadgets were the theme of this year’s America Recycles Day (ARD), an annual event that took place this weekend.

A nationally recognized effort of Keep America Beautiful, ARD is the impetus for hundreds of recycling activities throughout the country. It is celebrated on Nov. 15 each year. There were more than 1,500 registered events this year.

“Clearly America Recycles Day is taking that moment in time and raising visibility, awareness and as I like to say, celebrating recycling,” says Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling, Keep America Beautiful. “Recycling is not without its challenges so this year we wanted to highlight items that were easily recyclable but not necessarily ‘top of mind’.”

These include personal care items commonly found in the bathroom, like haircare and mouthwash bottles; plastic bags, such as those used at retail stores, and plastic wrap used in packaging paper towels, toilet paper or dry cleaning; and consumer electronics and gadgets, such as mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, televisions and more.

Pulley says while some of these items are not recycled curbside, they are highly recyclable.

“Take plastic bags. There are 18,000 locations listed right now on our website where you can drop them off to be recycled,” she says. “It's our job to help educate people and share with them how they can be handled and to make it easy for them to recycle.”

Here are some of the special events that took place to celebrate of America Recycles Day: