Earth Day is a day dedicated to supporting environmental protection and was started in 1970. It is celebrated worldwide on April 22 every year in more than 193 countries. Although Earth Day is only one day a year, that does not mean that you cannot recycle and take care of the planet every single day. There are many ways to recycle and even help others while doing it!

 For thirty two years, eighty-six year old Johnny Jennings recycled nine million pounds of newspapers and magazines. With this much recycling, Jennings was able to raise $400,000 which he donated to the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries. He donates between $10,000 to $35,000 to the organization annually, as well as food and clothes. To receive money for recycling, throughout the week, Johnny Jennings collects papers from local businesses and churches and recycles it to a local center. Just this simple act to help save the planet can benefit you and your peers as well. Jennings started out recycling with his son in order to teach him a lesson about money and put the money into a savings account. Years of Jennings’ recycling was enough for the down payment on his first house! After that he decided to keep recycling, and even managed to get his community to join him by sending items for him to recycle. In some states, glass bottles and aluminum cans can be turned in for five to ten cents per bottle. If you think about it, that is $1.20 for a twelve pack of sodas. Even better, paper sells anywhere from $50-$75 per ton! To find out if there is a recycling center near you, all you have to do is go to Earth911.com or consult a phone book. In Wake County, NC one of the places to visit is Raleigh Metal Recycling, where you can recycle aluminum cans for money!

 Although you do not always receive money for recycling, it is still a good deed to take care of the world that you live in. Metal, plastic, glass, and paper are some of the more common items that can be recycled. However, electronics, batteries and bulbs, and even kitchenware can be processed and reused as well. Instead of throwing these items in the trash, they can be recycled just as easy. There are also other ways to give back to the community such as donating clothes to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or any of the clothes drop off bins located in the parking lots of some stores. This is a nice and easy way to give to those in need instead of adding to the unnecessary items that are thrown into the landfill everyday. Junior Makaela Stetson said, “It is important to recycle because we need to keep our planet the green, beautiful land that it is now. Our landfills get filled quicker than the environment has time to decompose all of the waste that we put into it.” Recycling creates seven to ten more jobs than landfills, conserves freshwater, and saves trees from deforestation. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times could save up to 75,000 trees which would give living organisms more oxygen to breathe and keep the earth green. It takes just one single step to throw your recyclables into the correct bin and contribute to environment protection.