By Staff
RECYCLE Bill Barnett with the state Department of Environmental Quality tosses a can into one of two new recycling bins at the Mississippi Welcome Center in Toomsuba. Betty Lou Jones, left, Beverly Knox and Dorothy Lloyd, all with the Keep America Beautiful Commission of Meridian/Lauderdale County, watch. They and others promoted environmental awareness while celebrating Earth Day on Monday. Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star
By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
April 23, 2002
A group of area civic leaders celebrated Earth Day 2002 on Monday by promoting new recycling bins at the Mississippi Welcome Center.
Members of the Keep America Beautiful Commission of Meridian and Lauderdale County hosted the event and stressed the importance of preserving the Earth.
The group also praised the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for placing two recycling bins for aluminum cans at the welcome center.
Bill Barnett, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's ground water chief, was on hand to present the welcome center with the bins.
Barnett said a total of 20 bins are being placed at Mississippi's 10 welcome centers. They were paid for by the Mississippi Recycling Coalition and made by Mississippi Prison Industries.
The idea of the bins came from a meeting between the DEQ and Keep Mississippi Beautiful.
The welcome center will be in charge of collecting the cans from the bins and will receive all the money earned from recycling.
Monday's celebration at the Toomsuba welcome center was one of thousands around the world to help promote environmental awareness.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Keep America Beautiful Commission of Meridian/Lauderdale County recently received a first-place award for best affiliate program of Keep America Beautiful in the state.
Members traveled to Jackson last week to receive the award.