Syracuse, NY - Friday, April 22: Earth Day is celebrated by a half a billion people world wide making it the largest secular holiday in the world.

To celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day - April 22, Mark Naef, CEO of Naef Recycling, (380 Carr St., E. Syracuse) will:

* Open his recycling plant for tours from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm every hour on the hour on Friday, April 22. Refreshments provided.
* Provide a container vehicle April 18 - 22 for individuals to drop off paper products including cardboard, magazines, newspaper, file folders, card stock, stationary, paper back books, mail etc. No hard cover books or soiled paper accepted. This is a great opportunity to clean out your office or home and recycle all those accumulated papers. Save a tree in the process.

Learn what happens to today’s Post Standard, the cardboard box, the plastic milk jug, that detergent bottle or aluminum cat food can you toss into the blue bin?

Naef Recycling receives material from Onondaga, Oswego, Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie county.

Come tour the plant; see the process; learn where the material is shipped and the products it becomes next. If you can’t come April 22 and want to schedule a tour at another time call 463-7266.

Earth Day was founded in in 1970 to promote worldwide environmental citizenship. Their mission is to build broad-based citizen support for sound, workable and effective environmental and sustainable development policies. Earth Day Network today works with a global network that reaches over 12,000 organizations in 174 countries.

Directions Thompson Road North to Burnet, Right on Burnet to Carr St. Right to end of road.

Mark Naef , President of Naef Recycling has a long history of involvement with recycling. He was canvas director with Recycle First, a local advocacy recycling group  founded in 1988; a Recycling Specialist with  RRT /Empire Returns, a company that built the first recycling center in Onondaga County; Marketing Manager for  Daystar Recycling, a private paper brokerage company serving municipalities and private recyclers in NY state.

Using the National Recycling Council's Environmental Benefits Calculator Naef Recycling with  the people of Central New York will help save the following:

*  14,143 cars off road
*  4,537 houses off grid
*  42,961 tons of reduced air emissions
*  119 tons of reduced waterborne waste emissions
*  132,528 trees saved
 
*  Greenhouse reductions in passenger cars equivalent(# of cars off the road per year)
*  Energy savings in per household equivalent (# of houses off grid per year) 
*  Reduced air emissions due to recycling 
*  Reduced waterborne waste emissions due to recycling
*  Number of trees saved due to use of recycled paper at paper mills

The plant recycles 200 tons of material a day. They are broken down into the following categories:

*  Cardboard - Bailed and shipped to Solvay Paper Board where it is made into "medium"

*  Newspaper - High quality, grade 8 shipped to Abitibi in Ontario, Canada where it is turned into newsprint.  Today's PS could be tomorrow’s NY Times.

*  Steel cans - Shipped to Pittsburgh where it is melted and turned into new steel.

*  Aluminum cans (Cat food cans, iced tea cans, foil and pie plates) - melted into new aluminum

* Plastics - Three types:
   HDPE/Natural - Milk jugs shipped to N. Carolina and made into Clorox bottles.
   HDPE/Colored - All laundry detergent bottles shipped to  Canada where it is turned into

      "black plastic" products such as motor oil containers.

   PET - Water bottles salad oil bottles, hand soup bottles shipped to N. Carolina and turned

      into carpets and polar fleece.

* Milk Cartons and Juice Boxes - Bailed and shipped to Michigan where it is turned into writing paper, toilet paper etc. This is the best fiber you can get.
* Glass - Ground up and reduced to aggregate.

Mark Naef , President of Naef Recycling has a long history of involvement with recycling. He was canvas director with Recycle First, a local advocacy recycling group founded in 1988; a Recycling Specialist with RRT /Empire Returns, a company that built the first recycling center in Onondaga County; Marketing Manager for Daystar Recycling, a private paper brokerage company serving municipalities and private recyclers in NY state.