Ironton resident Joan Terry

will work to educate today's youth and tomorrow's citizens against littering and the importance of recycling.

Terry was hired in December by the Ironton-Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization to assist the Lawrence-Scioto County Solid Waste Management District in its efforts.

"The goal is to educate the public," Terry said. "We want to stress the three R's-reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling is great, but we must close the loop and buy recycled products."

She will take over as the education specialist/program manager for the Recycling and Litter Prevention Program after the former manager, Diane Turley, was killed in motorcycle accident last August.

The focus of the entire program is on litter prevention, environmental awareness and waste reduction, Terry said.

"We do clean ups, but it is only a temporary fix," she said. "If we do not educate people about litter and what it causes, then we are really not solving the problem."

Terry said she is excited about being pro-active and getting the message out into the schools and the community.

"Everyone thinks, 'Well, I am just going to throw this away,' but there is no away," she said. "It has to go somewhere, usually to land fills."

She will give presentations to local schools, civic groups, senior citizens and anyone else interested in cleaning up the county.

Presentations are individually tailored to be educational and age-appropriate, and are also interactive, she said.

Common activities include videos, displays and hands-on projects like

shredding old paper and making new sheets.

In December, she visited the Ironton Senior Center. Everyone had a good time as they made jewelry out of old paper as an example of ways to reuse what is often viewed as waste, she said.

All presentations are completely free and she recently sent letters to most of the area principals to help promote the program.

Terry holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Ohio University.

She has several presentations scheduled within both counties, and expects things to really pick up in April when Earth Day draws near. She

will also help coordinate the annual River Sweep on June 23.

"I think people in Lawrence County are becoming more aware," she said. "We have the recycling trailers and they are really being utilized."

Since the trailers were purchased in July, more than 33 tons of waste have been processed, Chuck Yaniko, district coordinator for the LSCSWMD, said.

Yaniko said that education is a big part of the Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines to receive funding.

"Educating our children at a young age is important so that by the time they are adults they are used to it," he said. "It makes the fight easier."

The Ironton-Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization operates the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District. It is funded by the Scioto and Lawrence County boards of commissioners, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention.