Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 223 / Friday, November 19, 2010 / Presidential Documents 71003 

Proclamation 8601 of November 15, 2010 

America Recycles Day, 2010 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

Each small act of conservation, when combined with other innumerable 

deeds across the country, can have an enormous impact on the health 

of our environment. On America Recycles Day, we celebrate the individuals, 

communities, local governments, and businesses that work together to recycle 

waste and develop innovative ways to manage our resources more 

sustainably. 

Americans already take many steps to protect our planet, participating in 

curbside recycling and community composting programs, and expanding 

their use of recyclable and recycled materials. Recycling not only preserves 

our environment by conserving precious resources and reducing our carbon 

footprint, but it also contributes to job creation and economic development. 

This billion-dollar industry employs thousands of workers nationwide, and 

evolving our recycling practices can help create green jobs, support a vibrant 

American recycling and refurbishing industry, and advance our clean energy 

economy. 

While we can celebrate the breadth of our successes on America Recycles 

Day, we must also recommit to building upon this progress and to drawing 

attention to further developments, including the recycling of electronic products. The increased use of electronics and technology in our homes and 

society brings the challenge of protecting human health and the environment 

from potentially harmful effects of the improper handling and disposal of 

these products. Currently, most discarded consumer electronics end up in 

our landfills or are exported abroad, creating potential health and environmental hazards and representing a lost opportunity to recover valuable resources such as rare earth minerals. 

To address the problems caused by electronic waste, American businesses, 

government, and individuals must work together to manage these electronics 

throughout the product lifecycle—from design and manufacturing through 

their use and eventual recycling, recovery, and disposal. To ensure the 

Federal Government leads as a responsible consumer, my Administration 

has established an interagency task force to prepare a national strategy 

for responsible electronics stewardship, including improvements to Federal 

procedures for managing electronic products. This strategy must also include 

steps to ensure electronics containing hazardous materials collected for recycling and disposal are not exported to developing nations that lack the 

capacity to manage the recovery and disposal of these products in ways 

that safeguard human health and the environment. 

On America Recycles Day, let us respond to our collective responsibility 

as a people and a Nation to be better stewards of our global environment, 

and to pass down a planet to future generations that is better than we 

found it. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 15, 2010, 

as America Recycles Day. I call upon the people of the United States to 
71004 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 223 / Friday, November 19, 2010 / Presidential Documents 

observe this day with appropriate programs and activities, and I encourage 

all Americans to continue their recycling efforts throughout the year. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day 

of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth. 

[FR Doc. 2010–29455 

Filed 11–18–10; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 3195–W1–P