Waste Prevention and Reuse

Creative Ways to Meet Education Requirements

Wastesheds throughout the state have developed a variety of approaches to satisfying waste reduction education and promotion requirements. In some areas, cities or counties hire recycling education coordinators to implement the program (e.g., Washington, Deschutes, Marion, Lane and Douglas Counties and the City of Eugene). Other cities have included the recycling education and promotion program into their franchise agreements with waste haulers (e.g., Baker City, Beaverton, Astoria, Corvallis, Albany, Springfield and Sweet Home). Another method is for cities and counties and hauling companies to combine their resources to hire someone to cover one or more counties (e.g., Lincoln, Jackson, Washington and Clackamas Counties).

Effective Education Programs

A 1996 Oregon Survey of Local Recycling Programs showed that local waste reduction education and promotion programs play a critical role in increasing the amount of material recovered from the solid waste stream.

"Highly effective" Programs - programs with the highest recovery rates (several exceeded their goals) were found to:

• Utilize a wider variety of education techniques. (The "least effective" programs were found to rely solely on printed information.)
• Target their audiences more specifically. (e.g. workshops, public service announcements, and a school program)
• Disseminate information more frequently. Many of their efforts happen on a weekly and monthly basis rather than just quarterly and annually.

Examples from Around the State:

The first three examples meet the Expanded Program Requirements.

County-driven: Washington County

Washington County's waste reduction education program is funded by pooling eleven local cities and unincorporated Washington County's Metro Challenge Grants. The pool is matched by Washington County using disposal franchise fees. The program has one full time educator. Education elements include: informational brochures (Multifamily, Yard debris, Roadside Recycling, Curbside Recycling, and Waste Reduction), a web site, a touring Recycling & Waste Reduction Display, the WasteLine newsletter, and school outreach through the Oregon Green Schools Program. Haulers are required to inform their customers of the opportunity to recycle and often use monthly bills, Washington County brochures, or newsletters to fulfill the requirement.

City-driven: Eugene

Eugene's waste reduction education program is run by the city's Recycling Specialist and supported by two additional part-time staff. The program's budget comes from licensing fees for waste haulers that are based on net revenue less tipping fees. The education and promotion program is divided into three main areas: Residential Collection, Commercial Collection and Organics Recovery. The city has included recycling education and promotion policies in its city codes. The haulers develop and distribute their own materials to their residential and commercial customers.

Eugene's waste reduction staff assists the commercial sector by publishing informational brochures and conducting waste assessments through their SMART program. The Organics Recovery area includes compost and worm bin sales, Master Composter training classes, twenty-five compost demonstrations a year and an on-site supermarket food waste composting demonstration. Additional education and promotion tools used for all three areas include: a web site; separate phone book listings for recycling and composting; a waste reduction video aired on the public access channel that may be checked out; a television show; hosted booths at fairs and festivals, and informational self-help kiosks around the city. In addition, Lane County contracts with the nonprofit BRING Recycling to help educate and promote waste reduction in the schools and in the community. BRING also publishes a quarterly newsletter.

Hauler-driven: Albany-Lebanon Sanitation

Education and Promotion in Albany and Lebanon is funded through collection fees. Albany-Lebanon Sanitation hires a full-time coordinator to focus on waste reduction outreach in the school system using the Oregon Green Schools program (the coordinator is not responsible for the bulk of the program). The recycling education and promotion program is written into everyone's job description and is an integral part of the operation. Albany-Lebanon Sanitation maintains an informative website, sends out a new customer brochure including necessary how-to information. Also, there are monthly articles published in the local paper and six to ten waste reduction and recycling community events scheduled each year.

Non-profit program: Pine Valley Recycling Committee in Halfway

The Pine Valley Recycling Committee is a group of dedicated citizens who feel strongly about recycling. For the past five years they have been responsible for the recycling activities in Halfway, Oregon. Volunteers recently received numerous in-kind donations from people in Halfway, as well as a DEQ grant to build a recycling station. The committee has an agreement, renewed yearly, with the city to maintain recycling collection, pick-up, transport, and depot storage. Youth groups will assist in running the station. The Committee, although not required to do expanded education and promotion, educates residents through local newspaper articles and announcements; holds monthly recycling day events; and assists interested residents with separation and recycling at the events.

Designing YOUR Education and Promotion Program:

Budgets are tight, issues are plentiful, and who has time or energy to educate and promote? Taking the time to establish a successful waste reduction education program can make the difference in achieving recovery goals and fostering important environmental stewardship in your community.

When designing your Recycling Education and Promotion Program, begin with its foundation. List the program requirements and the materials, events, or promotional methods your program currently uses to meet those requirements. Have you met the general and/or expanded requirements? If not, assess the resources needed to meet them. Look at the number of residents you have to reach, and assess your staff and budget. Consider forming partnerships to accomplish the tasks (e.g., haulers, non-profits, citizen groups, and government agencies). This can be both more efficient and more effective!

If you are meeting the general program requirements, consider expanding your program to get the best results possible. Assess what you would need to implement the expanded program to improve your recovery rates. Look for ways to accomplish more than one task at a time. For example, if you're just beginning to work with the commercial sector, use your curbside recycling brochure as a template. Or plan events that allow you to cover many topics. To meet the expanded program requirements, consult other programs so you are not reinventing the wheel.

Be willing to take some risks to get people's attention, and remember that nothing's final! You don't need a huge budget to create an effective education and promotion program. The following tips are some of the things you DO need if you want to be successful:

Program planning tips:

• Make it a priority by identifying resources for the program such as volunteers.
• Establish goals for the program: What do you want to accomplish? By when? (This is critical!)
• Hire someone or incorporate tasks into existing qualified employee work plans.
• Tailor the program to your community.
• Look at other organizations for assistance, explore partnerships to accomplish the task.
• Employ a variety of communication strategies throughout the year.
• Get involved in local community events that already draw a big crowd.

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