Recycling Warriors
Taking the time to highlight and honor those that are doing good deeds for the Environment! We call them Recycling Warriors! Whether it is in your own house, small community, state or larger scale - it all makes a difference and we appreciate you! We all share the same planet! Thank you for caring!
More to come!
Tom Dilyard was recognized for decades of leadership in recycling and environmental stewardship during a recent meeting of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners, from both local and regional environmental partners, receiving a Public Service Award from the Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne Recycling District, and the 2025 Conservation Education Award from the Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).
Dilyard has long served as a driving force behind the recycling program at the Wayne County Fair, one of the largest and most active county fairs in Ohio. Since the program’s launch in 2009, fair recycling efforts have expanded significantly, growing from roughly 30 collection containers to more than 80 recycling and food-waste containers placed throughout the fairgrounds each year.
As part of the program, volunteers collect cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics, and food waste. Dilyard works closely with a dedicated team of fair volunteers, FFA members, and partner organizations to ensure materials are properly collected and sorted. Over the life of the program, more than 120 tons of recyclable material have been diverted from landfills.
Recycling operations at the fair have grown more complex in recent years due to changes in the international market, which have significantly tightened contamination standards for recyclable materials.
Dilyard helped establish a systematic, on-site sorting process at the fairgrounds to ensure materials are clean, dry, and properly separated.
Dilyard’s commitment to recycling extends beyond the fairgrounds. During his career at the Wayne County Care Center, he helped implement and expand a facility-wide recycling program, encouraging staff and residents to recycle cardboard and other materials.
David Held, Executive Director of the Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne Recycling District, said that Dilyard is one of Wayne County’s most dedicated champions of recycling.
“His work has been highlighted in local publications for its positive community impact and credited him with helping fairgoers, coworkers, and volunteers better understand responsible recycling practices,” Held said.
SWCD Education Specialist Kelly Riley said that Dilyard’s efforts reflect professional commitment and a personal passion for improving the community. His example, she said, continues to benefit Wayne County residents and the broader region through education, partnership, and sustained environmental leadership.
Article by By Dan Starcher, Public Communications Coordinator for Wayne County
2025 Tom Dilyard.pptx
https://zerowastefest.com/ Zero Waste Event Production LLC is the leading recycling, composting, and waste management provider for outdoor festivals and events. Our team provides the experience, equipment, and dedication to service that will leave you with a clean, comfortable venue from start to finish—and a lower environmental impact!
If it wasn't for Judge Ray Leisy and his wife Allyson, the Wayne County Fair in Wooster, Ohio would not be recycling today!
Ray and Allyson Leisy have always been involved in their community. They are both heavily involved in the Sonnenberg Village located in Kidron as well as the Wayne County Historical Society. However, most fairgoers might recognize them for their efforts around Wooster and the Wayne County Fair.
Ray and Allyson have always been passionate about recycling. In fact, as the Wayne County Juvenile Court Judge, Ray Leisy established a recycling theme for young people involved in the Juvenile Court system. They started recycling efforts in the early 2000’s downtown and at Woosterfest. Later, the Leisy’s decided it was time to expand their efforts to the fairgrounds during the Wayne County Fair by placing their recycling containers around the Grandstand area.
Yes, indeed, Ray and Allyson started the Recycling efforts here at the Wayne County Fair ON. THEIR. OWN. They acually put out their own bins and collected on their own. Then in 2009, Judge Ray Leisy and Allyson approached the Fairboard about how their efforts could be expanded. The following year, forty green barrels were placed out and Sandmandy Enterprises of Creston collected cardboard. The Sheriff’s Department helped with workforce pickup and over 5 tons of recyclables were collected for the first official year. Each year a team effort is in place, Allyson runs a crew with her team that she has worked with from the onset from the Wooster Kiwanis Club to clean and sort trash and recyclables from the grandstand area. Wayne SWCD, STW-Recycling District, Paradise Compositing as well as local FFA chapters and caring volunteers all work together to form the Recycling Team and continue with Leisy's Legacy - even after Ray and Allyson stepped away from their duties. Some 15 years later, their vision and dedication remains stronger than ever! Thanks Leisys!
https://www.paradiselawncareinc.com/compost-drop-off/ Thanks to Bart Morr and Paradise Compost, since 2013 all food scraps and vendor food waste from the Wayne County Fair have been able to be composted at his facility. We are fortunate and lucky to have this wonderful partnership in our community!
https://theoceancleanup.com/boyan-slat/ Want to be Inspired? Read this!
While on vacation in Greece at 16 years old, Boyan was SCUBA diving and saw more plastic bags than fish in the sea, which left him thinking “Why can’t we just clean this up?”.
He started looking into the problem and possible technology solutions to clean up ocean plastic pollution, dedicating a school project to developing his idea further. He presented his ideas at a TEDx Conference in late 2012. In February 2013, the TEDx video suddenly went viral, and the momentum that followed allowed Boyan to drop out of his Aerospace Engineering degree to officially found The Ocean Cleanup.
October 20, 2021: Boyan Slat sharing a few words during the Proof of Technology announcement for System 002, The Ocean Cleanup's ocean system.
October 20, 2021: Boyan Slat sharing a few words during the Proof of Technology announcement for System 002, The Ocean Cleanup's ocean system.
Armed with only €300 of saved-up pocket money, Boyan dropped out of his Aerospace Engineering degree at Delft University of Technology and started detailing his plan, but initially struggled to make progress. However, this all changed a few months later when Boyan’s TEDx presentation was picked up and publicized by various news blogs – pushing the video around the world and causing the idea to go viral. This momentum allowed Boyan to assemble an initial team of volunteers and launch a crowdfunding campaign that funded a year-long feasibility study – the first real step in bringing Boyan’s technological solutions to life. This is how The Ocean Cleanup started.
In the following years, Boyan led the organization through the initial scientific work, testing and concept iterations leading to successfully achieving Proof of Technology in 2021 for both river interception and cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Today, The Ocean Cleanup is actively cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and has deployed Interceptors in some of the world’s most polluting rivers to prevent plastic reaching the ocean in the first place. To see our progress, visit the Impact Dashboard.
“When people say something is impossible, the sheer absoluteness of that statement should be a motivation to investigate further.”Boyan Slat
https://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/who-we-are/meet-chad.html Check it out!
FROM COLLECTING MUSSELS TO USING MUSCLE TO COLLECT GARBAGE
The Mississippi River was literally Chad Pregracke’s back yard while growing up near East Moline, IL. The son of educators and river enthusiasts, KeeKee and Gary Pregracke, Chad and his older brother, Brent, spent the majority of their time on, in and around the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Between his childhood and first job as a clam digger, it didn’t take long before realizing that he didn’t like what he saw - above or below the river - and decided to do something about it.
WHAT STARTED AS ‘ONE RIVER, ONE PIECE OF GARBAGE AT A TIME’ TURNED INTO LIVING LANDS & WATERS FULL TIME
At the age of 17, Chad started making calls to government agencies to notify them of the problem, assuming someone would take care of it. Year after year passed by and the problem only worsened. In 1997, Chad decided that if no one else was going to clean up the river, he would.
In 1998 at the age of 23, Chad founded Living Lands & Waters. Today, the organization has grown to include a full staff and fleet of equipment. The crew averages nine states a year along the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio Rivers, as well as many of their tributaries. Most recently, Chad expanded the mission of the organization to include Student Educational Workshops, The MillionTrees Project, Adopt-a-River Mile, Invasive Species Removal and The Great Mississippi River Cleanup.
AWARDS, HONORS & A BOOK
Chad’s vision, charisma, non-stop work ethic and natural leadership abilities have garnered him an abundance of awards and honors over the years. Most notably, Chad was the recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service (America’s version of the Nobel Prize) in June 2002. Chad accepted this award in the United States Supreme Court in Washington D.C. with other award recipients Rudolph Giuliani, Bill and Melinda Gates and Lilly Tartikoff. In 2013, he was named CNN's Hero of the Year. Chad is also the author of From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers.
OTHER EXCITING PROJECTS
Beyond Living Lands & Waters, Chad works alongside his wife, Tammy, to make custom, injection-molded pallets using 100% recycled HDPE. A portion of which is collected through LL&W cleanups!
After living on a barge and cleaning up America’s rivers together for nearly 20 years, Tammy and Chad were appalled by how difficult and costly it was to find a place to process and recycle the large, bulky, rigid plastics they were pulling from the river. So, they decided they would create a solution.
Their company, Green Current Solutions, is a culmination of Chad and Tammy’s passion for the natural environment and their drive to make change. By switching from wood to 100% recycled plastic pallets, companies are not only saving millions of pounds of plastics from our oceans, rivers, landfills and incinerators, but also saving millions of trees from being cut down—allowing them to flex their carbon sequestering muscle!
article about Eddie Olschansky on https://trashfishcle.org/
Meet Cleveland's Trash Fisherman Who's Cleaning Up the Cuyahoga River One Piece of Plastic at a Time
Posted By Vince Grzegorek on Clevelandscene.com
“At least five days a week, Eddie Olschansky can be found in his kayak on the Cuyahoga River, trash grabber in hand.
From big plastic tubes to small plastic bits, from styrofoam to tires and, apparently, basketballs, he retrieves the detritus that collects in and along the banks of the river, hoping to catch as much of it as he can before it finds its way to Lake Erie, where some 2,500 tons of plastic end up every year.
Olschansky, a Cleveland native, has been a one-man wrecking crew on a mission this year, but what was once simply a solo hobby became something a little bigger, now involving occasional small group outings. And though those are limited by necessity for now due to the pandemic, expect a more fully fledged operation in the future, including a nonprofit, large group outings and concerted outreach to teach Clevelanders the easiest way to clean the river is to fundamentally change how they behave as consumers from the start. ”
— Vince Grzegorek, Cleveland Scene
#TEAMSEAS https://teamseas.org/ A global social movement to remove trash from Beaches, Rivers and the Ocean - this amazing collaboration teamed up with The Ocean Conservancy, and The Ocean Cleanup to clean up over 34 MILLION pounds of trash and plastic out of the oceans and rivers all across the world! Power of volunteers and a social campaign put to work for the environment! And it keeps going! Insprirational!
next up is#TEAMTREES