Contacts:    Lindsey Sampson, Lee County Solid Waste Director, 479-8181
                   Emory Smith, Lee County Solid Waste Recycling Coordinator, 479-8181

Fort Myers, Fl. (March 14, 2001) - The Recyclable $500 Play-offs are continuing with great success! 14 winners have been chosen, and approximately 5,000 recycling bins have been distributed in just 5 months! Now that’s results!

The Forestwood Apartments, Riverside Village, Meadow Lark Cove Condominiums, Golf View Condominiums, Tropic Terrace Condominiums, Oaktree Apartments, Mary Musto, John Torretto, Grace Hord, Larry Farr, Sr., Tina Kucera, Kenneth Crist, Della Parker and Shirley Campbell are all winners in the Recyclable $500 Play-offs! The play-offs are sponsored by the Lee County Division of Solid Waste and the cities of Cape Coral and Fort Myers. The winners, both single-family residents and multi-family complexes receive $500 for paying attention to their recycling efforts. "You are being paid for something you should do anyway," says Tom Campbell of North Fort Myers. "It’s nice to see a reward instead of a ticket, we’ll keep it up," says Joan Victory of the Tropic Terrace Condominium Association, both recent winners in the Play-offs.

Every month the Recyclable $500 Play-offs randomly award single family residents and multi family complexes, from all over Lee County except for Sanibel and Captiva, for recycling properly. Recycling properly means there are no plastic bags or trash in the recycling bins, that only proper items are placed in the bins, the items are rinsed, and if they are paper items, they are bundled separately from the other recyclables.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) announced recently, that Lee County has the highest recycling rate in the state of Florida! Lee County surpassed all the counties in Florida to receive first place ranking with a 38% recycling rate for fiscal year 1998.

Faced with tremendous population growth throughout the state, the State of Florida enacted the Solid Waste Management Act of 1988 to reduce the amount of solid waste disposed of throughout the state. This legislation required counties to provide sound solid waste disposal facilities for their residents and businesses. It mandated that a recycling initiative be established in each county in order to meet a recycling goal of 30% of the waste stream by 1994. It also required that newspaper, aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles be removed for recycling prior to disposal, and that construction and demolition debris be segregated from the municipal solid waste stream and disposed of separately at landfills. In 1989 Lee County developed a comprehensive solid waste plan to conform to the requirements of the Solid Waste Management Act, and to ensure adequate means of the disposal for all solid waste generated in the County to the year 2030. Lee County’s successful and innovative recycling program is a result of these two initiatives.

For more information on recycling and the Recyclable $500 Play-offs call 479-8181 or visit www.lee-county.com/solidwaste/