Hometown Rankin - June & July 2017

From a very young age, Becca’s family instilled in her
the importance of conserving our natural resources and
being good stewards of the environment. Along with her
family, Becca is a faithful volunteer with Keep the Reservoir
Beautiful, the local Keep Mississippi Beautiful affiliate. Since
she was only 3 years old Becca has been picking up litter and participating
in other clean-up activities in and around the Ross Barnett Reservoir,
helping her fellow volunteers maintain the natural beauty of this popular
recreational destination for residents and visitors alike to enjoy.
Becca’s interest in recycling, however, was sparked just last spring
by an article on landfills she read as part of a school assignment. Becca,
a homeschool student in 3rd grade at the time, learned from the article
that 70% of the materials sent to landfills can be recycled. This statistic
grabbed Becca’s attention prompting her to ask her mom if they could start
recycling at their home, and see how much material they could save from
the landfill. While this idea seems simple enough, the Blair family live in
Rankin County; and recycling here is no easy task for residents compared
to other counties and cities in the Jackson area. The County does not offer
curbside recycling services, and only operates two recycling drop off
locations in a County of nearly 150,000 residents.
Despite these challenges Becca’s mom, Michelle, agreed that their
family should start recycling, and encouraged Becca to turn her idea into
a school project by keeping track of how much material their
household collects for recycling. After getting the hang of
recycling at their house, Becca and her mom noticed that the
family trash had been reduced from 2 bags of trash a day to
1 bag every four days. “Once I saw how much recycling helped
us, I wanted to help my neighbors,” recalls Becca. And with that thought
in mind, Becca, supported by her family and neighbors, began collecting
recyclables in her neighborhood for transport to the nearest county recycling
drop-off center located at the Reservoir Fire Station. She developed
a slogan “Help Me Go Green and Recycle” and started advertising her
“recycling services” by distributing flyers around her neighborhood. She
also asked her friends at Keep the Reservoir Beautiful to get involved.
The organization happily answered the call by donating reusable
recycling tote bags. These bright orange repurposed potato sacks are
used to hold collected recyclables. Becca gives a bag or bag(s) out to
anyone in the neighborhood who asks to participate. Bags are also offered
as a welcome to folks just moving in along with Becca’s flyer and a tasty
homemade treat. Initially Becca collected from only a few neighbors, but
as word spread of Becca’s expanded school project, more and more
neighbors asked to be added to her “route”. According to Michelle,
75-80% of their neighbors put their bags out once a week. To keep this
enthusiasm going, Becca conducts contests periodically to encourage
Hometown Rankin • 89