Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know of a great new endeavor: the Keep America Beautiful and Sprint Nextel Partnership. What’s more, it is a partnership between KAB and the Wireless Alliance — a zero-waste recycler. Wow, that is a mouthful, and what does it mean? Actually, it is a nationwide cell phone recycling program known as Wipe Out Wireless Waste and it will allow your local Keep Natchez/Adams County Beautiful bunch to hook up with the good folks at Sprint to share in a great recycling/fundraising project.

Now this something everyone can do, and it will go a long way toward getting discarded material out of the system. And it is so simple. The great kids working with the Mayor’s Youth Council have volunteered to administer the program and they are making it a cinch to participate. There are about a zillion cell phones out there these days, and they are constantly being shuffled around due to upgrades, dysfunctional parts, etc. Now — this is the participation part — when you are through with a particular phone and ready to chuck it or turn it in, please bring it to City Hall at 124 South Pearl St. That will be the collection point. All you have to do is drop it off and the Youth Council will handle bundling and shipping. Really — that’s it — all you have to do is drop your old phone at City Hall.

When you think about the number of phones in circulation and all the metal and plastic involved in each one — the numbers really add up. At the moment, we don’t have a lot of recycling opportunities here (we are working to change that, by the way) and this is something you can do with your children to helm them learn to build a “No Waste World.”

We hope that everyone will join in this effort — we hope we are deluged in old cell phones. Don’t worry, we can handle it. Just keep thinking W.O.W. — Wipe Out Wireless Waste. This is truly a great family project that will do the world a lot of good. If you have questions, you can contact me at 601-442-3706 or Darlene Jones at 601-445-7521.

Stephanie Hutchins is a Natchez resident.