[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 15, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RECOGNIZING NOVEMBER 15, 2011 AS THE NATIONAL RECYCLING DAY

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                            HON. MARTHA ROBY

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 15, 2011

  Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize that today is the 
National Recycling Day that promotes and encourages recycling in our 
homes, schools, and workplaces.
  I had the privilege of touring KW Plastics last week and was 
impressed with what this business are accomplishing. KW Plastics is 
located in Troy, Alabama and employs approximately 300 people. It is 
the world's largest plastics recycler.
  KW recycles post-consumer household plastic items like milk jugs, 
shampoo and detergent bottles, yogurt cups, paint cans, and plastic 
bottle caps. Instead of these products ending up in landfills, KW 
Plastics turns these items into high quality and high value products. 
These include automotive parts, consumer brand packaging, agricultural 
pipe and pots, all-plastic paint containers and film wrap.
  KW's largest challenge and only hindrance in growing more, employing 
more, investing more, and generating more revenue for their community 
is a mere lack of supply. They need more recyclable material. We have 
the needed supply, but are burying it in our landfills every day.
  Several states conducted studies showing the material they paid to 
place in a landfill would have generated more worth had the material 
been sorted and sent to a recycling market. We are literally burying 
treasure in our landfills every day while there are recycling companies 
starving for material and offering competitive market pricing.
  Recycling has important environmental rewards like energy and natural 
resource conservation. According to the Southeast Recycling Development 
Council, Alabama has 26 manufacturers who look to recycle content 
feedstock in their product. This means that 10,700 jobs in Alabama 
depend on recycled materials with an annual sale of $6.6 billion.
  Recycling is not simply an environmental issue, it is an economic 
one. There are real manufacturing jobs that depend heavily on 
recycling. Recycling is good for the earth but maybe more 
significantly, recycling is good for the economy.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues rise to join me in recognizing 
November 15th as the National Recycling Day and to continue to 
encourage our constituents to participate in recycling. It is equally 
important that we teach our children the environmental and economic 
benefits of recycling.

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