JUNE 12, 2012

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Diana McClung                                                       
Little Rock River Market                                                     
dmcclung@littlerock.com                                                  

(501)320-3503 Office / (501) 804-1262 Cell                   

**MEDIA ALERT**

WHAT:                        River Market Goes Green Press Conference

WHEN:                       10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
           Wednesday, June 13

WHERE:                     River Market – West Pavilion
                                    400 President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock

DETAILS:                    Bryan Day, Assistant City Manager; Gretchen Hall, President
                                    & CEO Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau; Tim
                                    Heiple, Keep Little Rock Beautiful / River Market
                                    Neighborhood Association; and David Steinmetz, Waste
                                    Management will all discuss this pilot program & meaning
                                    for the River Market District and City of Little Rock.

                                    Participating Restaurants will demonstrate the amount of         
                                    glass collected on average per night with a “Glass Smash”.
                                    Waste Management’s new single stream recycling dumpster
                                    on Display. Ripple Glass & Owens Corning will show end
                                    products made from recycled glass.

                                    Visit participating restaurants tonight for special promotions
                                    celebrating that the River Market is going GREEN!

PHOTO OPPS:          City Leaders, Glass Smash, Waste Management Display
                                    Ripple Glass / Owens Corning Display

FUN FACTS:              It’s estimated that 60% of River Market District Restaurant trash is made of recyclables like cardboard and glass.

It takes 6, 12oz Beer Bottles to make enough insulation to fill a standard wall cavity.

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a compact fluorescent bulb for 20 hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.

On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.

So far this year, Ripple has recycled over 32 Million bottles and jars.

In 2011, Ripple Glass recycled enough glass to produce nearly 100 million Boulevard beer bottles. Placed end to end, these bottles would stretch almost halfway around the earth.

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