Teaching The Value Of Recycling By Cleaning Your Town's Streets
If you are the leader of an environmental group, scouting group, or teacher to students learning about the Earth's valuable resources, you may want to consider hosting a town cleanup event to help beautify the area and teach participants about the value of recycling. Here are some tips you can incorporate into your cleanup efforts, leaving your town with pristine streets while allowing those who help out to feel great about doing their part in taking care of the environment.
Get The Word Out
Let those in your group or class know of your intentions and see if they have friends or family members who wish to give a helping hand. Advertise on a local radio station, place flyers in town establishments, and spread the word via social media. Consider holding a contest to see who can collect the most trash. This will entice people to join as there will be some friendly competition, allowing participants a chance of winning a prize or bragging rights.
Inform Trash Service
If you plan on collecting large amounts of trash or recycling, you will want to have dumpsters delivered to collect refuse. If you have a local recycling service available, you can have participants visit together to learn how the items they had collected will be separated and reused. If the recycling needs to be hauled away to a recycling plant, make sure the dumpster company you work with has separate containers specifically for recycling.
Hand Out Materials
On the day of the event, give each participant a few garbage bags to place their items within. Have each person bring along a pair of gloves so they are not touching refuse as they are collecting it. Have participants separate items collected by putting trash in dark-colored bags and recyclables in light-colored bags.
If you are holding a contest, give each participant stickers with their name on them so they can place them on each bag they fill up. Have members leave the garbage bags on the side of the road. Designate a friend with a pickup truck to collect these bags to bring back to the dumpster area.
Compile The Trash
When everyone is done collecting trash, have them meet at the dumpster area to see how much they had found on the streets. Separate light-colored bags from dark-colored bags so the items are placed in the proper dumpsters. If you are holding a contest, have someone tally the number of bags as they are thrown into the dumpsters. Make sure to take pictures, so your participants can be recognized by displaying the photos in a local paper or via social media sites.
For help with any recycling equipment you may need, contact a company like C-TEC Compactors & Balers.