America Recycles Day at Radnor Lake

Thanks to support from Friends of Radnor Lake, park visitors and other partners, the Radnor Lake Staff were honored to receive Gold Certification in 2019 by Tennessee State Parks for our sustainability efforts!
As we celebrate America Recycles Day today, we wanted to share a few highlights of our recycling and sustainability efforts at Radnor Lake and how you can help us at Radnor Lake make a positive impact on our stewardship efforts:
• Over 500+ Christmas Trees were recycled in January 2019 for trail mulch and installed by park volunteers on the Lake Trail at Radnor Lake.
• Installation of a new bottle refilling station at the Walter Criley Visitors Center in 2018 has resulted in over 36,000 refillable plastic bottles being used by park visitors and park staff.
• The park staff recycled over 2,630 lbs of scrap metal during the past year which resulted in $98 worth of savings back to the State of Tennessee!
• The park staff weighed and recycled over 384 lbs of glass in 2019.
• Building Green: Radnor Lake has and continues to use recycled materials for trail bridges, observation decks and construction of the Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Education Center. In addition, we have converted 5 facilities over to LED lighting in the past 3 years.
• The park staff collected and recycled over 38,480 lbs of plastics, paper, cardboard and aluminum cans so far in 2019 thanks to our park visitors choosing to use our recycling bins instead of trash cans.
• Thanks to funding from Friends of Radnor Lake our Jr. Ranger Interns cleaned up and recycled trash from over 5 miles of the Duck River at the Duck River State Natural Area in June 2019. In 2018, this program recycled over 37 used tires from river clean-ups thanks to our friends at Bridgestone with their Tires4ward Program at the Firestone on 8th Avenue.
• Thanks to our Native Grasslands Initiative at Radnor Lake, we are now heating two buildings with firewood from areas restored back to grasslands to support butterfly and ground nesting bird populations at the natural area.
What can you do to help us do even more in the coming year as we celebrate America Recycles Day 2019:
1. Take the recycling pledge! Radnor Lake State Park and State Natural Area hopes you will join us in celebrating America Recycles Day 2019! Please consider taking the pledge at: http://americarecyclesday.org/pledge/
2. Recycle and/or even better……use refillable bottles when possible to reduce the amount of plastic bottles when visiting Radnor Lake. Choose recycling bins instead of trash that goes to the landfill located at each parking area and at the Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Education Center when visiting Radnor Lake.
3. Bring us your Christmas Tree to the West Parking Area starting December 26th, 2019 thru February 1st, 2020 so that we can recycle these trees to provide mulch for our 6+ miles of trails at Radnor Lake!
4. Support Friends of Radnor Lake as they annually support our sustainability efforts at Radnor Lake thru volunteering, clean up of new property and recycling those items and funding programs such as our Jr. Ranger Intern Program that not only make Radnor Lake better but the environment via river clean ups and environmental education efforts!