September 9, 2002

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Waste Management recently recognized the Cities of El Paso, San Jose, Pittsburgh and Jackson County (MO) for their outstanding participation in Clean Your Files Day (CYFD), the Conference's official recycling event.

More than 200 cities, counties, nonprofits, government agencies, and other organizations signed up for this year's CYFD, a national event that promotes paper recycling by encouraging offices to purge old documents and files by sending them to the recyclers, instead of to the landfill. The 2002 participants amassed more than 870 tons (1.7 million pounds) of recyclable materials, saving 6 million gallons of water, more than 3.5 million kWh of energy, and 25,000 cubic feet of landfill space, according to statistics published by National Polymers, Inc.

The Conference of Mayors created and now coordinates the eight-year-old event with sponsor Waste Management. To assist its participants, the Conference runs training workshops, distributes how-tos for combining day- or week-long recycling celebrations with file and office cleanups, and each year recognizes those outstanding local events that "go the extra mile" to promote paper recycling.

Jackson County, home to Kansas City, partnered with nonprofit Bridging the Gap and 50 other organizations to haul in 211 tons of materials, the greatest tonnage reported by any organization, during their Clean Your Files Day.

El Paso topped the Clean Your Files Day charts for both numbers of participants and number of partner organizations, involving between 10,000 and 15,000 people in three school districts, several businesses, and all city, county, and state offices.

San Jose and Pittsburgh reported this year's most creative events. Managed via intranet site, San Jose's "Pack Rat Day" featured a cartoon rodent framed in a Western'style "wanted" poster. The rat is said to "hoard files that date back to the time of Jesse James." Pittsburgh allowed each of its participating departments and organizations to choose a theme, the most striking of which was "Castaways," a creation of the Department of Engineering and Construction. On the day of the event, Engineering Castaways dressed as cast members from the 1960s television show Gilligan's Island, decorated a recycling bin in the style of boat, and "cast away" their old papers and files.

Other spirited CYFD events included the city of Edmond's "Mission Possible," which asked city departments to eliminate "Space Hogs" by recycling old files, the city of Akron's daffodil giveaway, and a "Compost Festival" in Humboldt County and the Cities of Eureka and Arcata.

Several cities launched CYFD events with proclamations from their mayors, including Chicago, El Paso, Edmond (OK), Lansing (MI), Lincoln (NE), Lewisville (TX), Louisville (KY), Macomb (IL), Muncie (IN), Pittsburgh (PA), San Jose, San Bruno, and St. Peters (MO).