Keep Carbondale Beautiful turned 25
Keep Carbondale Beautiful was incorporated on July 28, 1987, as Carbondale Clean & Green. On Saturday, July 28, 2012, we celebrated at Hickory Lodge -- 25 years of Keeping Carbondale Beautiful!
Scroll down for a historic tour of the early years of Carbondale Clean & Green and Keep Carbondale Beautiful.
Scroll down for a historic tour of the early years of Carbondale Clean & Green and Keep Carbondale Beautiful.
Spring Clean-ups - Historic totals and photosYear Volunteers Recycling Totals (lbs) Total litter collected (lbs:)1989 500 2685 14000
1990 500 - 7025 1991 425 - 8240 1992 400 - 10298 1993 527 - 21699 1994 475 - 10004 1995 434 - 11698 1996 400 - 11827 1997 N/A - 11369 1998 255 - 9495 1999 N/A - 7973 2000 N/A - 8562 2001 N/A - 8562 2002 N/A - 8562 2003 N/A - 5224 2004 N/A - 3149 2005 N/A 1501 4787 2006 N/A - 1752 2007 N/A 861 2480 2008 164 693 3066 2009 223 1522 6887 Since 1989 volunteers at the Spring Cleanup and Recycling Day have removed over 175,000 pounds of litter from Carbondale neighborhoods, roads, and parks. That's equivalent to the weight of 65 Toyota Camry sedans!
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 City workers help collect bags of trash and recycling  City workers weighing litter |
Educational Outreach
Keep Carbondale Beautiful is dedicated to environmental education outreach programs. Since 2003, the Read for the Environment program has educated around 3,500 elementary aged children about litter control and environmental protection. The program lasts around 45 minutes with the
story, a discussion, as well as a brief activity. Following the discussion children receive a coloring book with recycling and beautification messages, soy
crayons, as well as a recycled pencil. Read for the Environment takes places in March, during the school
day. Anyone interested in volunteering, please contact Keep
Carbondale Beautiful.
Keep Carbondale Beautiful also participates in other environmental education programs. The Du Quoin Conservation Fair brings elementary aged children together for a hands on environmental workshop. Since 2007, the conservation fair has education almost 1,400 children. Since 2007, the Crab Orchard Earth Celebration event has educated over 500 children on the importance of litter prevention and environmental protection.
Keep Carbondale Beautiful also participates in other environmental education programs. The Du Quoin Conservation Fair brings elementary aged children together for a hands on environmental workshop. Since 2007, the conservation fair has education almost 1,400 children. Since 2007, the Crab Orchard Earth Celebration event has educated over 500 children on the importance of litter prevention and environmental protection.
Phone Book Recycling Drive
Keep Carbondale Beautiful's phone book recycling drive has been around since 1992. The purpose of this program is to prevent old phone directories from being thrown out into landfills. The goal is to have these phone books recycled so that they reduce the amount of trees that need to be cut down for paper consumption. Since 1992, nearly 155,000 phone books were prevented from ending up in a landfill. That's 433,000 pounds, or almost 217 tons of paper! That's over the weight of 160 Toyota Camry Sedans!
*Recycling Data courtesy of Northern Illinois University
- Recycling approximately
1 ton of newspaper saves 17 trees*. The phone book recycling drive has saved almost 3,700 trees!
- The EPA has found that making paper from recycled materials results in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution. This means that every ton of recycled paper keeps almost 60 pounds of pollutants out of the atmosphere that would have been produced if the paper had been manufactured from virgin resources*.
- Every ton of recycled paper saves approximately 4 barrels of oil, 4,200 kilowatt hours of energy and enough energy to heat and air-condition the average North American home for almost 6 months*.
- Recycled paper is made to the same standards as paper made from virgin pulp. Moreover, recycled paper has features which make it more desirable than virgin paper, such as being more opaque, dense, and flexible*.
- Making a ton of virgin paper requires 3,688 lbs. of wood, 24,000 gallons of water, 216 lbs. of lime, 360 lbs. of salt cake and 76 lbs. of soda ash. We then have to treat and dispose of 84 lbs. of air pollutants, 36 lbs. of water pollutants and 176 lbs. of solid waste*.
- The phone book recycling drive has saved over 800,000 pounds of wood, 5.2 million gallons of water, and over 38,192 pounds of solid waste!
*Recycling Data courtesy of Northern Illinois University
Historic Photos and Newspaper Articles
