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THREE METRO SCHOOLS WILL WIN $5OO PRIZE FOR RECYCLING OLD TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES

Metro Council Approves Resolution Designating February
 ‘Telephone Book Recycling Month in Metro’

Friday, February 9, 2007 

Metro and its Community Recycling Partner, AT&T Real Yellow Pages, are providing a way for students to win prize money for their school, and for businesses and residents to get rid of 2006 and older edition telephone directories.

This week, the Metro Council approved, and Mayor Bill Purcell signed, a resolution designating February as “Phone Book Recycling Month in Metro Schools” to support a month-long effort by Public Works, Metro Beautification and AT&T Real Yellow Pages to promote recycling in Davidson County.  A highlight of the campaign is a contest to see which schools in Metro can recycle the most 2006 “Real White Pages” and other unwanted telephone directories.  AT&T is currently delivering nearly 600,000 copies of the 2007 directories to Metro households.

“Our goal is to keep unwanted telephone directories out of the trash where they will eventually end up in a landfill, or worse, littering our streets and alleys,” said Public Works Director Billy Lynch. “Thanks to our recycling partners at AT&T, we hope to accomplish that goal, while expanding our recycling education efforts in Metro schools at the same time.”

All Davidson County residents, as well as students and teachers, are invited to participate in the campaign by collecting as many old phone directories as possible.  Schools can sponsor their own in-house campaign or on-campus event, and Metro will assist by picking up the directories they collect.  Or students, parents and other adults can bring them to one of Metro’s Recycle Drop-off Sites on any Saturday in February between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon.  (A list of the sites and operating hours is attached.)  Volunteers working the Saturday events will record the number of directories and which school the books are designated for.

The high school, middle and elementary schools that collect the most phone books, as well as the community groups sponsoring the Saturday events, will share $3,000 in prize money being provided by AT&T.  First place winning schools will each receive $500, and second place winners will receive $300.  The community groups who sponsor a Metro Recycle Drop-off Site will each receive $100 for hosting the Saturday collections.

This is the third year that AT&T (formerly Bellsouth) has participated as a Community Recycling Partner with Metro Public Works.  The telephone book recycling campaign is part of a larger initiative recently launched by AT&T and Keep America Beautiful Inc. 

“This telephone book recycling program is a wonderful example of what can be accomplished when agencies like AT&T, Keep America Beautiful and local government partner together for a good cause,” said Veronica Frazier, director of Metro Beautification and Environment.  “The result is a project offering immediate benefit to our city as well as long-term impact through education, for children and adults alike.”

“Our partnership with KAB and Metro Public Works is very valuable to us. We try to be good corporate citizens and that means producing a quality product and supporting initiatives to protect the environment,” said Mike Snow, area marketing manager with AT&T Real Yellow Pages.

On February 1, Metro Beautification and students from Dupont-Hadley Middle School officially kicked off telephone book recycling month at Metro’s Recycle Education Classroom.  The Classroom, which opened last Fall offering tours and programs for students of all ages to learn about recycling, is located inside Rivergate Recycling, where all recyclables collected by Metro are processed. 

For more information, visit www.nashville.gov/recycle.

DID YOU KNOW:

  1. One ton of recycled phone books saves 17 trees, 3,700 pounds of lumber and 24,000 gallons of water;
  2. Bellsouth Yellow Pages and telephone directories are 100% recyclable;
  3. Paper egg cartons, envelopes, roofing felt and animal bedding are some of the products made from recycled phone books.
  4. The first phone book was issued in New Haven, CT on February 21, 1878.

METRO’S COMMUNITY RECYCLE DROP-OFF SITES

All sites accept newspaper, mixed paper, paper board, cardboard, aluminum, tin, glass containers, plastic bottles & containers #1-7.

For more information, including a map to each site, visit www.nashville.gov/recycle.
Questions?  Call 880-1000.