Volunteer Ideas in Recycling

Have you ever wondered what you could do to help along NCRA's mission? Here are some general ideas of great things you could do in your community, home or workplace. Let us know what you're doing by sharing your stories with us at our next meeting!

1) show the NCRA DVD to other students, peers, the city council, etc., and generate some action items as followup (invite NCRA member to assist, if necessary)

2) do a membership drive for NCRA or choose a meeting/tour and bring some friends

3) organize a meeting for NCRA in your town and invite others to come (report back on questions, comments)

4) create a table of contents for our past newsletters (assign 5 newsletters to one student)

5) do a campaign with your local coffee shop to encourage folks to bring their own mug

6) do a campaign at/with a local grocery store for people to bring their own bag

7) learn about your local program and coordinate with your local recycling coordinator to do a tabling at an event to answer questions about recycling, show a video, etc.

8) do research on where your town's recyclables are recycled or address another question raised in the video education guide

9) do outreach based on the "National Geographic" recycled-content paper magazine campaign (see NCRA Campaigns on website)

10) find out what your school's policy is on "buying recycled" and present educational materials to encourage them to "buy recycled" or to follow "Environmentally Preferable Purchasing" guidelines from StopWaste.Org or the EPA.

11) Talk to a local business about their recycling and waste reduction programs and encourage them to recycle more (if they don't have a program already).
This could be newspapers from a coffee shop, or bottles and cans at a taqueria, or miscellaneous items from a thrift store.

12) Learn about a local building materials reuse business and help them "get the word out".

13) volunteer at a local special event (farmers market, art festival, street fair, 4th of July, Green Festival) to help increase recycling or monitor the bins

14) assist a local school in setting up a recycling program

15) teach someone to compost (a friend or school teacher)

16) if your town doesn't already offer a food scrap collection program, call them and ask why and what you can do to help get one started

17) See other campaigns listed on NCRA's website

18) suggest other volunteer ideas