KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Today is Earth Day, but the big celebration in Kalamazoo will be staged Saturday at the Kalamazoo Nature Center when more people can participate.
The day will start with a kids run they call the “Racoon Run” at 9 a.m. and a 5K for adults at 10 a.m.
They have educational programs from 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.
To mark the holiday, Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, has reintroduced legislation to expand Michigan’s bottle bill to include a variety of other containers that currently aren’t included, like water and juice bottles and other jugs up to a gallon, except for milk.
He says fewer people drink the kind of beverages that are currently part of the deposit law.
He says the law is 93 percent to 95 percent effective in getting those cans and bottles returned, but the recycle rate for other containers is just a fraction of that.
Hoadley said it not only gets rid of a lot of trash that ends up on streets and highways, but creates jobs in the recycling industry. The bills have been introduced before, most recently by Hoadley’s predecessor, Sean McCann, but failed to pass.
