2011 Annual Recycling Awards

The town's Recycling Committee handed out several recycling awards Monday night. On the eve of America Recycles Day, which is today, Nov. 15. America Recycles Day is a program of Keep America Beautiful, and the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.

The day promotes learning about recycling options in your community (go here americarecyclesday.org or here http://www.town.simsbury.ct.us/Public_Documents/SimsburyCT_BComm/recycling), and acting to reduce your personal waste by pledging to start recycling one new type of material within the next month.  

John Sawhill a former president of the Nature Conservancy noted, “a society is defined not only by what it creates but by what it refuses to destroy,” said Lori Fernand, chair of the committee. 

"In the long term our economic sustainability depends on our ecological sustainability. And as an old New England proverb states succinctly 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without,'" she said.  

The awards were given to local businesses that participated in the collection of old sneakers.

The annual Nike-Reuse-A-Shoe Campaign, nationwide since 1993, has collected more than 20 million pairs of shoes have been transformed into new basketball courts, tennis courts, soccer and football fields, running tracks, and playground surfaces. 

It takes the rubber from approximately 75,000 pairs of sneakers to make one field. This year was the 8^th year that the town of Simsbury participated.

Fernand handed out the awards to:

(two locations)

Farmington Valley Racquet Club

"In looking for ways to enhance our collection results, it just made sense for us to partner with businesses who cater to the client demographic that we needed to reach — sports aficionados, people clearing their closets of old clothes, and very young residents — who go through a good deal of sneakers rather quickly," she said. 

The committee is working to move the town from 24 percent recycling of its waste stream to 58 percent by 2024. Two significant ways to get to 58 percent include increasing the amount of recyclables put into our single-stream recycling bins and composting food waste.

Fernand also thanked the liaison to the committee, Deputy First Selectman John Hampton, for his assistance in "all things recycling" and the full board for its support in funding the purchase of the new Swap Shoppe. 

"The new building and location have had a major impact on the quantity and the quality of the materials that are swapped there," she said.