NERC in the News
Outreach to Handouts
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Resource Recycling; October 2009
A municipal recycling coordinator's guide is offered on how to move beyond basic community outreach, and express the importance of diversion to elected officials.
By Keefe Harrison and Elizabeth Bedard
Successful community recycling program managers understand that outreach is a smart way to ensure strong participation and low contamination levels. With those two components, recycling programs can work toward stronger economic efficiency. While this is a basic understanding among recycling coordinators, surprisngly few communities actually focus such outreach beyond basic appeals to households. Even fewer set their sights on elected officials.
Recent economic woes have shattered the idea that, come budget-cut time, it's best to fly below the radar. Recyclig programs that successfully weather market dips, like the one currently affecting us, often rely on their local elected and appointed officials to help them through, or at least not cut them out. Gaining supprt from elected officials sounds good; but making it happen is a little harder. Fortunately, it isn't impossilble.
The full article, available as a PDF by clicking here, includes the following sections:
- Beyond the landfill: Considering recycling's broad impact and its affects on communities
- Building trust: How to get an audience with your elected official
- Targeting the demographic: What to say once you have your audience (This section recommends using NERC's Environmental Benefits Calculator to show the amount of energy conserved from a community's recycling program, reductions reductions in greenhouse gas production, and savings in landfill space.)
- Keeping the communication gates open: One community's approach to building a long-term relationship with elected officials
- Tomorrow's support starts today: Local action feeds whole industry support.
