In addition to trading plants and recycling, the Keep Port Aransas Beautiful Texas Recycles Day event will include a demonstration on creating garden stones from recycled materials.

The event will be from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Nov. 11, in the Fred Rhodes Memorial Pavilion in Roberts Point Park.

Bee Johnson will demonstrate her "self-taught hobby" of creating stones.

Additionally, all kinds of plant life, cell phones, eyeglasses and books will be recycled. Volunteers from KPAB and the City of Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department will be on hand to accept and hand out these items.

The cell phones will be recycled; books will be traded, and the eyeglasses will be given to the Lion's Club in Corpus Christi to be reused.

The event is a way to celebrate Texas Recycles Day, and for KPAB to promote reducing waste and recycling and re-using items.

"This recycling helps make the island prettier with plants that live here growing in more places. We hope it also brings awareness to recycling of electronic products," said event coordinator Julie Findley.

Plants, seeds, trees, cuttings, rootings will be accepted.

"Please do not bring invasive plants," said assistant director of Parks and Recreation Rachael King. "If you do, make sure they are marked as such. Just because you think it's pretty doesn't mean it can't completely destroy someone else's yard," she said.

Do not bring pepper trees, said King. The trees are multiplying rapidly on the island, forcing out other plant life and creating problems. In fact, the city is getting ready to launch a pepper tree control program.

Chinese tallow and some vines that grow here tend to overtake a yard if not tended regularly, said garden club plant "guru" Carolyn Chancellor.

King will be on hand to identify plants and make suggestions for specific yards.

Texas Recycles Day, Nov. 15, is a statewide public awareness campaign that aims to educate Texans on the environmental and economic benefits of waste reduction and recycling. Its success served as the model for the development of America Recycles Day.

Those interested in recycling may enter an America Recycles contest by visiting the www.americarecyclesday. org website and pledging to recycle during 2007. Adults can win an Alaskan cruise and kids can win a 24-speed bicycle in the contest. No money has to be pledged and no purchase is required to enter.

No obligation is required other than making a commitment to step up recycling efforts over the next year in some way, large or small, according to Findley.