Partnerships are a wonderful thing, but what does that really mean to the community? Well, in this case Dominion Power have teamed up to spread the recycling message across the state…Virginia recycles, and has officially"Gone Green."
With hundreds upon thousands of visitors coming into Virginia each year, what better places to start help keeping our environment clean?
"More than 1200 hotels, restaurants, conference centers, festivals, attractions, and all of Virginia’s 35 state parks are now registered with and committed to the Virginia Green program.As a result, Virginia’s tourism industry is now able to actively promote itself as a green destination." -Tom Griffith, Virginia GreenProgram Coordinator
Side of new recycling bins
November 15 wasn't just "First Landing in Virginia Beach, eachheld awareness events to promote this dayby placing signage and several recycling containers throughout the parks.Fortunately, I was at Lake Anna toshake the hands of our partners, thank volunteers for their hardwork, and see these gigantic blue and yellow recycling containersput into place!Thesehumongouscontainers symbolize our effort to conserve ournatural resources, save energy and create green jobs.
“This partnership with Keep Virginia Beautiful and Dominion will pay huge dividends for all Virginians.The recycling containers allow us to greatly increase our in-park recycling efforts, keeping valuable resources out of our landfills. Perhaps more importantly, the signage and our commitment to bring a recycling message to our visitors will encourage more Virginians to recycle at home and at work.” -Joe Elton, Virginia State Parks Director
Dominion has made a donationin the form of 250 recycling bins and educational signage to beplaced in our parks across the state.By Earth Week 2013, you'll see these 96 gallon recycling containers in all 35 of our parks. To accompany the donation, 15 volunteersfrom Dominion's North Anna power station, rolled up their sleeves and cleared trash fromthe lake's shoreline, installed numbered posts for a featured self-guided hike along RailroadFord Trail, and cleared the path along the fitness trail they helped us build in 2011.
Jim Klakowicz, Friends of Leesylvania State Park,
"christens" the recycling bin with trash at the Leesylvania event
In addition to the new recycling containers, Virginia State Parks will be rolling out environmental awareness programming concentrating on anti-litter and reduce/reuse/recycle themes to its more than 8 million annual visitors. Keep Virginia Beautiful has also provided cigarette litter awareness posters and portable ashtrays.
This partnership emphasizes what government, non-profit organizations and corporations can do when they work together. Here is a slideshow of pictures taken at the three events.