Live Thrive’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) celebrated its Million Pound Pledge to Earth on Earth Day.

The challenge kicked off in January with the goal of collecting 1 million pounds of materials to be reused/recycled/reengineered in time for the annual celebration of Earth Day.

By April 15 the center had exceeded its goal by more than 300,000 pounds.

To collect the equivalent of 500 tons in just less than four months, CHaRM recruited help from the Atlanta business community. The center challenged businesses of any size and their employees to participate by bringing their recycling to CHaRM, where materials were weighed and logged to determine the total pounds collected from the challenge.

The Corporate Challenge alone collected 117,380 pounds of materials.

This year’s Corporate Challenge partners included Alston & Bird, Chick-fil-A, Inc., Community & Council Realty Group, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, EY, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Highland Mortgage, Interface, Monarch Private Capital, Novelis, Printpack, The Home Depot Foundation, UPS and Waste Management.

Collin Kelley is the executive editor of Atlanta Intown, Georgia Voice, and the Rough Draft newsletter. He has been a journalist for nearly four decades and is also an award-winning poet and novelist.