[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 124, 111th Congress, 2nd Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8601--NOV. 15, 2010

Proclamation 8601 of November 15, 2010
America Recycles Day, 2010
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Each small act of conservation, when combined with other innumerable
deeds across the country, can have an enormous impact on the health of
our environment. On America Recycles Day, we celebrate the individuals,
communities, local governments, and businesses that work together to
recycle waste and develop innovative ways to manage our resources more
sustainably.
Americans already take many steps to protect our planet, participating
in curbside recycling and community composting programs, and expanding
their use of recyclable and recycled materials. Recycling not only
preserves our environment by conserving precious resources and reducing
our carbon footprint, but it also contributes to job creation and
economic development. This billion-dollar industry employs thousands of
workers nationwide, and evolving our recycling practices can help create
green jobs, support a vibrant American recycling and refurbishing
industry, and advance our clean energy economy.
While we can celebrate the breadth of our successes on America Recycles
Day, we must also recommit to building upon this progress and to drawing
attention to further developments, including the recycling of electronic
products. The increased use of electronics and technology in our homes
and society brings the challenge of protecting human health and the
environment from potentially harmful effects of the improper handling
and disposal of these products. Currently, most discarded consumer
electronics end up in our landfills or are exported abroad, creating
potential health and environmental hazards and representing a lost
opportunity to recover valuable resources such as rare earth minerals.
To address the problems caused by electronic waste, American businesses,
government, and individuals must work together to manage these
electronics throughout the product lifecycle--from design and
manufacturing through their use and eventual recycling, recovery, and
disposal. To ensure the Federal Government leads as a responsible con-

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sumer, my Administration has established an interagency task force to
prepare a national strategy for responsible electronics stewardship,
including improvements to Federal procedures for managing electronic
products. This strategy must also include steps to ensure electronics
containing hazardous materials collected for recycling and disposal are
not exported to developing nations that lack the capacity to manage the
recovery and disposal of these products in ways that safeguard human
health and the environment.
On America Recycles Day, let us respond to our collective responsibility
as a people and a Nation to be better stewards of our global
environment, and to pass down a planet to future generations that is
better than we found it.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 15, 2010, as
America Recycles Day. I call upon the people of the United States to
observe this day with appropriate programs and activities, and I
encourage all Americans to continue their recycling efforts throughout
the year.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
fifth.
BARACK OBAMA