Have a few friends who still tend to toss the recyclables in with the trash? Say it ain’t so!! Here are five tips to help you be a great Recycling Recruiter to bring your friends into the light.
Make it fun: Set up a little competition with your best buddies who aren’t great recyclers. Tell them that for the next month, count how many times their recycling bin gets filled to the very top. (Clearly you’ll need to have some honest friends here but the point is to get them thinking about recycling, not to be the recycling police.) Bring in more friends by posting photographic evidence of each full bin on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. At the end of the month, whoever filled it up the most times, gets dinner/beer/cookies on you. Just like training a puppy – do something good, get a cookie, repeat!
Bandwagon Technique: Talk to your friend about how normal recycling has become and how everyone is doing it! Share a stat or two, like the recycling rate for your City. Nobody wants to be the last person doing something that everyone else is doing!
Note the Consequences: Be prepared to pull out a few facts in your everyday conversation that shows how necessary it is that we all recycle and how damaging it is when we send everything to the landfill. Don’t just pull out the negatives about why not recycling is bad. Throw in some positive info about why recycling is so awesome!
Make it Easy: Not quoting any major studies here but I’d still be willing to bet that the main reason most non-recyclers don’t recycle is that it’s not easy or convenient for them. Maybe someone has curbside recycling but doesn’t have proper indoor bins to help make separating recyclables easy. Maybe they live in an apartment complex that doesn’t offer recycling. If this person is not passionate about recycling, they’re not going to go the extra mile to make it happen. Help them out by going that extra mile for them. Make sure they know what is and isn’t recyclable. Then, set up a recycling bin system in their house or help them petition their apartment complex to get recycling.
Be the Example: This is the best and easiest way to convince your friends to be better recyclers. Set a good example! In my circle of friends, I am the obnoxious crazy recycler lady – and proud of it! Whenever I have people over to my house, you better believe they are looking for that recycling bin and being extra careful not to throw those soda cans in the garbage. (Because yes, I will pull recyclables out of the garbage. No shame here.) My hope is that recycling stays on their minds when they go home and they choose to do the same.
Good luck, Recycling Recruiters!