3. What is America Recycles Day? America Recycles Day, a program of Keep America Beautiful, is a nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.

4. What We Do Every year on or around November 15 (America Recycles Day) event organizers like myself, educate neighbors, friends and colleagues through thousands of events. Hint: Really we do it every day of our lives.

5. The Many Hats of Kimberly Trash Picker Upper Recycling Rembrandt Radio Rowdie Website Wonder Dumpster Diver Perky Presenter Kimberly Powers Volunteer Extraordinaire And who am I? Listen to Kim’s Radio Show “Community Overalls” on your local public radio station KWMV 95.9 Tuesdays at the noon hour!

6. My Mission with High Country Recycling is: To educate and motivate… Get our neighbors, friends and colleagues excited about what can be accomplished when we all work together… I also want to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year! I want to prolong the life of the landfill And, promote the beauty and health of the Valley. For More information about High Country Recycling, visit our website: www.highcountryrecycling.org

7. For National Recycles Day, I hope that: Rotary will promote recycling at all your events. That Rotary will use recyclable utensils, plates, cups, etc. at your events. That you will recycle at home, at work and when you are working with other community groups. If you’d like even more information on sustainable events, practices and developments in Custer County…

8. America Recycles Day SM, a program of Keep America Beautiful, is the only nationally-recognized day and community-driven national awareness initiative dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. Visit www.sustainableways.org

9. So what are some key messages I’d like to share with you? The first is that Recycling is the easiest thing we can do 365 days a year to save energy, conserve our Valley’s natural resources, create jobs, strengthen new green industries and save the county large sums of money by prolonging the life of our landfill. If you would like more information on volunteering for High Country Recycling, please contact Kim at 783.0760. Leave a message…I’m never home!

11. What’s another key message to share with you today? – The value lost by discarding packaging rather than recycling is estimated to be $11.4 Billion 1 – And another thought? Recycling 75 percent of the nation’s waste would create nearly 1.5 million jobs by the year 2030 2 Kim’s Email: kjmwestcliffe@gmail.com

12. Is that the last of my key messages? I don’t think so! Our national recycling rate of 34 percent annually: – Can save the energy equivalent of 165 gallons of gasoline for every ton of mixed paper 3 – That recycling rate also avoids greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 36 million cars from the road each year Food for thought: That leaves 56% margin for improvement. That could be considered sad; I consider it a challenge!

13. Recycling in Custer County What You Need to Know Support your local Non-Profit Organizations through the 2012 Spirit Campaign in Custer County

14. Know your Community Recycling Programs High Country Recycling Mission To have a comprehensive, successful program that supports individual, business and governmental practices that reduces waste, promotes reuse and advances recycling throughout Custer County. Goals and Objectives To become a role model for rural communities within and outside of Colorado. In order to accomplish this we must: 1. Promote Community Involvement 2. Educate and Raise Awareness 3. Expand Options 4. Role Model Zero Waste Behavior These bins are owned by the Town of Westcliffe

15. Custer County and High Country Recycling have partnered with several organizations to bring you options for recycling in your community. That’s because we’re all pretty cool here in Custer County…

16. Here are just a few: Sustainable Ways, Club AmericaWMV, Towns of Westcliffe & Silver Cliff, Veltrie Disposal Services, Custer County Govt., UAA Council of Government, Angel of Shavano Recycling, We Recycle Inc., CO Dept. of Public Health & Environment I think in school I learned a few was more than two…this is A LOT

17. Glass, Aluminum, Tin and Magazines, Catalogues, Office Paper, Junk Mail, File Folders, Phone Books Newspapers and more …. In Custer County, you can recycle all of the above materials for no cost in the bins at two locations: The Landfill and by the Custer County Sheriffs Office and Search and Rescue Building. Subliminal message…subliminal message…I hope the next time you are ready to toss one of the above items in the trash, this presentation flashes across your memory…recycle…recycle…recycle….recycle…it’s FREE…it’s FREE…it’s FREE…

18. What happens to some of these materials after you recycle them? Glass is transported to the Rocky Mountain Bottling Company in Lakewood, CO and remanufactured into bottles and back on retail shelves in 30 days. Aluminum cans have the same 30 day turn around from remanufacturing and back on retail shelves just as the glass. Paper is either remanufactured into insulation next door in Florence, CO or transported to Oklahoma for being remanufactured into paper. Cardboard is baled at the Recycling Center at the landfill and transported to a remanufacturer that makes cardboard and drywall.

20. PLASTIC RECYCLING IN CUSTER COUNTY Remember: It all starts with “YOU”

21. High Country Recycling Partners with We Recycle In May of 2012 several community organizations came together in order to facilitate plastic recycling in Custer County. A proposal was made to the board of Club America, who unanimously agreed to adopt the Plastic Recycling Program.

22. How the Program Works Need picture 1.Residents purchase a 40 gallon reusable bag for $3.00 at Club America. 2.After filling that bag with clean, crushed recyclable plastic numbered one through seven, the bag is dropped off for transport to We Recycle facilities in Pueblo. 3.Plastic collection takes place each first Saturday of every month, between the hours of 9 am and 12 noon.

23. What are the Benefits? 1.For every $3 spent, $2 is used to pay We Recycle for transport of the plastic out of the Valley. We Recycle also provides their driver to assist with collection for 3 hours. 2.The other $1 is then donated to Club America for their contribution of selling the bags to the public and use of their parking lot for collection purposes. 3.The beauty of this program is the ability to ship plastic out of our beautiful Valley, support a local community non-profit organization, and the ability to use the program for other fund raising events if necessary.

24. Why is it so important to recycle your plastic? Recyclable Plastic makes up about 15% of a landfill.

25. County Budget Recently Slashed In the Thursday, October 25 issue of the Wet Mountain Tribune, a front page article stated that the county has slashed $3000.00 from the Recycling Budget. That $3000 was the yearly budget for transporting collected recyclable cardboard from Veltrie Disposal Service to the Landfill.

26. What does that mean to Custer County Residents and the Landfill? Due to the recent budget cuts, cardboard recycling may only be available at the Landfill. Statistics predict that if this happens, cardboard recycling in Custer County could see a 50% reduction. Where will the other 50% of the cardboard go? In your trash, local dumpsters, and it’s final resting place? The Custer County Landfill.

27. Why Do We NOT Want that to Happen? High Country Recycling has several goals, and one of the most important is diverting recyclable material from our landfill to prolong it’s life. Landfills “fill up”, and when they do, another means for getting rid of your trash will have to be found. Our current landfill has approximately 7-10 years before reaching full capacity.

28. Let’s Look at Some Figures

29. And So Remember… High Country Recycling hopes that Rotary sincerely considers recycling in the Wet Mountain Valley. Responsibilities such as keeping our Earth and just as importantly our town clean STARTS WITH YOU. We also hope that you learned something new about recycling in our beautiful Valley to pass on to friends and family members.

30. HIGH COUNTRY RECYCLING… THANKS ROTARY FOR YOUR SUPPORT

32. One Final Word…