How To Start A Recycling Program For Your Community
It’s the New
Year and perhaps one of your resolutions was to improve yourself and the world
around you. Increasing awareness about landfills and the overuse of resources
in your community might make you think about the need for a recycling program,
but with such a huge task, where do you even begin? If you are ready to make a
difference, here are some tips to help you turn your town into a recycling
community.
Get Support from Others
The best
place to begin is by assembling a group of people like you who are aware of the
need for recycling and believe in making it a reality for your community. Talk
to your friends and family, and get some of your local leaders involved as part
of your team as well. Many politicians and community organizers will be able to
help you meet the right people to put your plan into action, help you with
ongoing funding, and assist in navigating government bureaucracies and other
hurdles along the way.
Create an Action Plan
There are
many different decisions that must be made in order to put a recycling program
into action, and it’s best to start out with a plan of action and a timeline
for completion. Your plan should include things like:
·
How
recyclables will be collected, and what types of bins to use
·
Negotiating
contractors for a recycling hauler to collect items
·
Whether
you will collect from businesses and apartments, in addition to single family
homes
·
How
often the hauler will come to collect recyclables
·
How
much it will cost, and whether you will need to charge residents
You may be
able to offset some of the costs by coordinating with neighboring communities
who either already have a program in place or want to create one.
Study Your Community’s Habits and
Needs
One of the
most important decisions to make is what you will recycle, and while there are
a number of items that can now be recycled, it’s not necessarily a good idea to
include every single one of them in your program. To determine what you should
be recycling, start by studying the habits of your community members to find
out what they are throwing out most—for example, paper, aluminum, cardboard, or
plastic.
Once you
decide what you will include in the program, be specific with instructions to
community members so they recycle the correct items.
Look Beyond Just Recycling Used
Items
While
recycling is a great way to reuse items instead of throwing them in landfills,
another way to reduce waste is to implement programs that discuss and encourage
people to use less. Educate people in your community about the importance of
reducing overall usage, then recycling the things that are needed as a
two-pronged effort of environmental awareness.
Recycling
has become a positive force for many communities to reduce costs, lower their
carbon footprint, and do something good.
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