The City of Knoxville's Solid Waste Section is again helping sponsor America Recycles Day (ARD) in Knoxville for the City of Knoxville and Knox County residents. America Recycles Day in Knoxville will take place from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Saturday, November 6th, at the Earth Fare store, 40 N. Forest Park Blvd. just off Kingston Pike in Bearden.

The Theme for this year's event is "Protect Your ID and the Earth!"

Residents will be able to bring in old or unwanted documents to be confidentially shredded and recycled by Smith & Hammaker, a local office records management company. There is no limit to how many documents residents can bring, and this may include items such as old tax documents, billing statements, receipts or any other paper document that needs secure disposal.

All documents will be securely transported to Smith & Hammaker's shredding facility. Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union will be on hand to provide free information on how long old documents should be kept and when it is appropriate to dispose of them.

Other events happening at Earth Fare for "Protect Your ID and the Earth" include:

used vegetable oil collection for recycling into biodiesel by Clean Energy Biofuels

battery recycling by the Knoxville Recycling Coalition

a used mercury thermometer exchange for a digital one by the City Solid Waste Office

residents can take the ARD pledge to recycle during the coming year to be registered to win one of 10 Can Crushers to be given away by the Knox County Solid Waste Office

Alcoa will be giving away 22-gallon recycling bins while they last

Choose to Reuse, a graduate student advocacy group from the Department of Public Health at UT, will be presenting educational materials on the environmental and financial costs of plastic bag use in Knox County. They will also distribute free reusable shopping bags while supplies last.

additional free give-a-ways and games

"Protect Your ID and the Earth" is sponsored by the City of Knoxville and Knox County Solid Waste Offices, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, the Knoxville Recycling Coalition, Waste Connections, Alcoa, Make Big Orange Go Green, Waste Connections, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union, Knology, Clean Energy Biofuels, UT Public Health Graduate Program, Keep Blount Beautiful, Smith & Hammaker, Ijams Nature Center, WBIR-TV Channel 10 and Earth Fare.