February 15, 2024
Keep Pickens Beautiful (KPB) is proud to award the February 2024 Green Ribbon Award to Cherokee Closeouts. This award is given to selected individuals, groups, clubs, or businesses in recognition of outstanding programs, projects, or activities that protect or enhance our community’s environment.
Cherokee Closeouts was given this award to recognize their extraordinary efforts to reduce their environmental impact and to beautify Pickens County. They were nominated by KPB Board members because of the volume of cardboard they recycle, but they actually do much more. Here are some examples of how Cherokee Closeouts is making a difference in Pickens County:
- Recycle mountains of cardboard
- Replaced all their fluorescent lights in the store with LED tube lights
- Offer customers cardboard boxes to use instead of plastic bags
- Keep their parking lots and nearby landscaping free of litter and debris
- Plan to redesign their bathrooms with low flow toilets to minimize water usage
- Help community members increase their food security by providing food at affordable prices
Why are these efforts important?
- Recycling cardboard reduces waste headed to the landfill while also reducing the deforestation, energy, and water used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
- LED lights can produce the same amount of light as incandescent or fluorescent bulbs but use less energy or watts. LEDs also last up to 50x longer than fluorescent tubes and require much less maintenance, reducing the lighting waste headed to landfills by up to 80%.
- By offering customers cardboard boxes, Cherokee Closeouts is recycling by reusing, and is also reducing the volume of plastic bags added to the environment. Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up in landfills where they take around 300 years to photodegrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.
- Reducing litter is a pillar in KPB’s mission, and the Cherokee Closeouts team is making a difference by keeping their parking lot and surrounding area clean. This helps enhance the beauty of our community and makes the shopping experience more pleasant.
- Water is a challenge in Pickens County since we don’t have a large, local water source. Old toilets can use up to 7 gallons per flush – that’s good, clean water literally going straight down the drain. Low-flow toilets can use less than 2 gallons per flush, reducing water cost and consumption.
- In the United States, over 44 million people, including 13 million children, experience food insecurity annually. In the past year, food costs have steadily increased thanks to a combination of inflation, pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions, and tariffs on certain foreign imports. With more than 50% of their sales floor space dedicated to food, Cherokee Closeouts is making a difference. They focus on keeping costs low to help provide many needed items for our community.
When individuals, businesses, governments, and community leaders work together, big change can happen. Keep Pickens Beautiful is grateful for the efforts made by the Cherokee Closeouts team to reduce their environmental impact and applauds them for all they do to help Pickens County.
Be sure to visit Cherokee Closeouts at 55 Burnt Mountain Road. Let them know how much you appreciate all they’re doing for the environment while also providing a valuable service to Pickens residents.
Do you have a nominee for the Green Ribbon Award? Let KPB know! Learn more and submit your nominees at: https://keeppickensbeautiful.org/programs/beautification/green-awards/
