Congratulations to our Earth Day Hero, Laura Hernandez!

After volunteering at an America Recycles Day event in 2015, helping residents from the second-largest county in the state of Georgia keep old electronics out of the local landfill, Laura Hernandez knew that she wanted to pursue meaningful work in waste. She turned in her resignation at work a few days later and founded Gwinnett Recycles, a grassroots organization that educates the nearly one million residents of Gwinnett County to keep trash out of landfills and the environment. In February, she co-founded a new community organization called Come Clean Gwinnett, which empowers citizens to take action on litter and blight. The group already has more than 1,400 members, who have invested 864 volunteer hours in collecting 1,355 bags of litter and 273 tires.

Hernandez has accomplished a lot in her career in the industry including:

• Conducted a litter cleanup and plastic litter audit in each one of Gwinnett County's 16 cities, collecting five tons of trash and logging 10,042 pieces of plastic litter

• Educated residents about updated recyclables list through blog posts and tips on social media (tip on plastic bag recycling was shared by users almost 700 times and reached 82,000 people on Facebook alone!)

• Educated residents about composting for International Compost Awareness Week with videos from seven Gwinnett residents all around the county showing off their compost methods

• Addressed the county commission and advocated for more engagement on recycling issues, which led to county approving and matching a $100,000 grant for recycling education, opening an exploration of glass recycling options, creating new #RecycleRightGwinnett campaign, and approving budget for a full-time recycling education position

Hernandez says her favorite way to celebrate Earth Day is “By reducing, reusing, and recycling – in that order!”

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