Mayor Bill Haslam will kick off this year's Knox County school phone book recycling effort at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the new Goodwill-Park Village Drive Recycling Center in West Knoxville.
The location is a "Super Recycling Center" involving a partnership between Goodwill and the City of Knoxville, which recently added recycling drop-off containers to the site. As part of the event the mayor will recognize the winners of a phone book recycling poster contest held recently in Knox County schools that was aimed at promoting awareness among students of the importance of recycling.The school system is also involved in an ongoing contest to see which schools can collect the most phone books.The two winning students of the poster contest will each receive a $50 prize and their teachers will receive a $125 prize for use in the classroom.
Some new phone books have already started arriving at residences and businesses and BellSouth begins distributing its books later this month."Recycling old phone books provides major environmental benefits," Haslam said, "including saving existing resources as well as helping limit the amount of pollutants into the environment."Last year, for example, Knox County schools collected more than 143 tons of used phone books for recycling.
That translated into a savings of 240 cubic yards of landfill space, saved 2,448 trees from having to cut for paper products, saved 432 barrels of oil, and kept 31,824 pound of carbon dioxide out of the air.Schools began collecting old phone books this year and the contest to collect the most continues until Jan. 27, 2007. Cash prizes will be awarded to the schools that collect the most books.Individuals can drop off old phone books at schools, though they should check with the school first to see if it is participating in the effort.
Businesses and individuals can also make arrangements to drop off large numbers of books, on behalf of particular schools if they choose, at Knox Recycled Fiber at 1323 Proctor Street.They need to inform the schools of the number of books they drop off so those schools can credit that number to their total.Phone books can also be dropped off at recycling centers located across the city including ones at some Kroger and Food City locations; behind the K-Mart on Kingston Pike and at Goodwill Collection Centers at 225 W. Moody Avenue and the collection center at the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Alice Street.