Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Jill Weaver / Daily VIdette Photographer The Ecology Action Center celebrated America recycles day at the Children's Discovery Museum on Saturday morning.

Media Credit: Jill Weaver / Daily VIdette Photographer Melissa Ritter, a junior elementary education major, teaches Taylor Jones, 5, a game to celebrate America Recycles Day on Saturday morning at the Children's Discovery Museum.

If every person on-campus recycled one Daily Vidette a few times a year, adding up to 20,000 newspapers, it would save: "760 gallons of oil, 34 trees, 8,000 kilowatts of energy, two tons of paper and 1400 gallons of water."

This information, taken off of an information board put together by ISU's green team, should be enough to make anyone think twice about throwing this newspaper into the nearest garbage can.

If this is not enough, try "Googling recycling fun facts," Ted Ratajski, the Recycle Coordinator at ISU, said. "There are countless reasons why one should recycle."

Saturday was America Recycles Day. To celebrate, the Ecology Action Center teamed and the Children's Discovery Museum host an event at the museum.

The event was held to recognize the completion of the Ecology Action Center's "third annual recycling calendar, in which the artwork was created by elementary, middle and high school students from Normal," DeAnna Belz, assistant director of the Ecology Action Center, said.

This, along with other recycling related activities, all happened Saturday morning at the Children's Discovery Museum in Uptown Normal.

There are locations all over campus to recycle paper products, cardboard and plastic bottles and cans. These bins, which are all made out of recycled plastics themselves, are in every building.

So what actually is recyclable? A complete list can be found at the Town of Normal's Web site, Normal.org.

Once at the site's homepage click the "town government tab and then the "public works" option, and "waste division" then finally "recycling."

Off-campus recycling and those odder items is where this waste reduction technique can get a bit tricky, but it still is not difficult.

There are many drop boxes conveniently located throughout the Normal community.

The closest of these boxes is on-campus, on the corner of Locust and School streets, across from the Bone Student Center parking lot.

There are also boxes at 304 E. Mulberry, Kroger Plaza on College Avenue, 1101 N. Main at the University Center and 901 S. Cottage at the Jewel-Osco.

Many other locations can be found at the Town of Normal's Web site.

"Normal per capita is getting more recycling through the drop-off locations than Bloomington is, and they have curbside pick up for recycling."

Another little known fact is that "Bloomington actually drops all their recycling off in Normal," Ratajski said.

Some places in the Bloomington-Normal area pay for recycling.

Morris Tick Steel Company pays people for their aluminum cans. Pat Hendricks, a Morris Tick employee, said Morris Tick "pays 35 cents per pound for aluminum."

Hendricks said they also accept any other scrap metal.

There is a coupon currently on the Morris Tick website, morristick.com, for 5 cents more per pound of aluminum. That means 40 cents per pound.

So start collecting those cans and bring them over soon to cash in.

The Ecology Action Center has also put together some recycling programs for more difficult things to recycle, such as their "P2D2 program, a prescription drug container recycling program," Belz said.

The Ecology Action Center also organized a compact fluorescent light bulb and a plant nursery pot-recycling program.

For those with old electronics, do not throw them away. Bring them to the Tech Zone in the Bone Student Center where they will get recycled.

While America Recycles Day was Saturday, in reality it probably should be everyday, in Normal, at ISU, and everywhere else across America - and the rest of the world, too.

"I have to take out the trash less often [because I recycle], which is convenient," Joey Kappel, a senior social work major said.

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