Recycle Race

The Problem

According to RecycleNation, 75% of waste is recyclable but only 30% of it is actually recycled!

• If a single aluminium can is recycled, it can power a TV for up to 3 hours alone (with 95% of energy saved)
• Recycling just one sheet can power a cell phone for 6 hours (with 40% of energy saved)
• Every plastic bottle recycled, saves energy to power a 60 watt bulb for 6 hours (90% of energy saved)
• Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to listen to 73 hours of music (74% of energy saved)

Clearly, recycling is beneficial to everyone. So how can we encourage societies to start recycling? (Stats via DailyDump.org)

The Solution

Competitive events can be a lot of fun, especially when you play on a team! Host a recycling event in your school or community and help keep tonnes of trash out of the landfills.

The Method

1. Choose a material or object to recycle as a community. The easiest ones are newspaper, plastic bottles, plastic bags and aluminium cans, but you can choose whatever you feel people produce the most.
2. Choose a collection location. It should preferably be a convenient and central location like a hall of your school or a room in your neighbourhood community centre. Just make sure you have permission to use the space!
3. Get people involved. Get your school or neighbourhood excited about the event with announcements, flyers and online messages.
4. Make teams. This campaign is easiest to do when you have pre-divided groups like houses in schools and lanes or blocks in neighbourhoods.
5. Set a date and time. Collect your recycling material for a specified period of time, and let the participants know!
6. Recycle! Send the collected material to recycling companies (and preferably let them know ahead of time about the waste pick-up)
7. Celebrate! Conclude your event by awarding the winning team with prizes and celebrate the win! You can donate the money you received from the recycling agency to environmental organisations and causes your community cares about.