America Recycles Day is a nation-wide program of Keep America Beautiful, officially celebrated on November 15.  Here in Irving, the local KAB affiliate, Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB), has been collaborating with the seniors group of the Irving Family YMCA for several years in their America Recycles Day event, and this year was no exception. KIB provided the blue bags, and the seniors started collecting their recyclables and bringing them to the YMCA in late October. KIB staff weighed and recorded the bags, which were diverted from the landfill to a recycling facility, thanks to the city’s Solid Waste Service Department.  The group of 22 collected 537 pounds of recyclable material through November 15.  On Friday, December 1, KIB thanked the seniors by hosting a breakfast at their facility.

Rachel Moon, a KIB Board member who volunteered at the breakfast, commented on the event by saying, “This is a program that the seniors look forward to every year, and I know that KIB does, too.  They encourage each other to recycle, and they have become more aware of the importance of recycling.”  KIB Board Member Margie Stipes was also in attendance, and she added, “We always like to recognize our volunteers for their efforts in helping to make Irving a better place to live, work and play, and this is a fun way to say thank you to our seniors for recycling, and to let them know we appreciate them.”

America Recycles Day is a Keep America Beautiful (KAB) program dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.  The official day is November 15, and thousands of events take place all across the country during November with a focus on increasing recycling in communities.  More than 65,000 people took the recycling pledge to reduce waste, recycle more, and encourage others to recycle. 

Keep Irving Beautiful is a non-profit, grassroots, leadership organization dedicated to educating our community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of our city. As an award-winning affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, Keep Irving Beautiful reaches out to all sectors of our city including government, business, church, cultural, educational, neighborhood and civic organizations.  If you are interested in volunteering with KIB, or making your activity a “green event,” please go to Keep Irving Beautiful, or call (972) 721-2175.