Updated: 11/14/2009 7:17:37 PM
The average American generates 4.6 pounds of garbage every day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Saturday, some local organizations looking to reduce that number gathered at Earth Fare in Bearden to celebrate "America Recycles Day."
"It's happening, and people are wanting to do the right thing, they're finding out more about it, they're being educated, their kids are being educated in school and bringing it home with them," said John Homa, project manager for Knoxville's Solid Waste Department.
People traded in mercury thermometers for digital ones, safely tossed out their old medicines, and brought in their aluminum cans for recycling.
They also got to take home can crushers and free recycling bins.
Mac Comer, a teacher at Beaumont Magnet Honors Academy, took home a bin and talked about the lessons he's teaching his students.
"I've actually seen my kids not wasting as many Kleenexes and paper towels and pencils, and we're not throwing away cans, they're actually catching me every now and then tossing away some things, so they're catching on very fast," Comer said.
But Greg Wittbecker, director of recycling for Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum recycler, says, for recycling to really catch on, it will come down to dollars and cents.
"When people start to have to pay for what they generate on a use basis, then you'll start to see recycling start to go up because recycling, at the end of the day, is going to be about economics," Wittbecker said.
By the end of the event, organizers had collected more than 225 pounds of medication and around 375 pounds of aluminum cans.
They also handed out more than 250 digital thermometers and around 150 recycling bins.
