Promotional Events /
Staging Events

There are many opportunities to promote waste reduction and recycling as a focused event. Earthday / Earthweek, Recycling Awareness Week (setup by the Governor of Oregon), and Buy Nothing Day are just a few of the important designated times that offer Campus Recycling the opportunity to do simple tabling or extensive events.

*Tabling: Each University has common areas where different groups setup tables to hand out materials or involve the campus communities (such as clothing drives, letter writing campaigns, recruiting, etc...). This provides Campus Recycling to setup a table and pass out information, sell promotional items, do giveaways, games, grassroots etc.... At all events, be sure to have on-campus program information available while augmenting this with other free literature that the department has created or is attained from local sources. County, City and State often produce great free literature. Additionally, every state has a Department of Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection or a department that encompasses that area. The EPA also has fact sheets and other free literature. Most important is how to information produced specifically for the campus; next is information for community resources such as the Household Hazardous Waste Collection and how the transfer station works; then comes other info. such as non-toxic house cleaning and gardening tips, what happens to the stuff collected for recycling etc...a list of web sites is also handy with the computer culture. People love factoids and resources!!

*Beyond Tabling: There are many opportunities for creating simple to complex "events" for awareness. Here are some activities that you can utilize for anything from office presentations, single promotions or incorporate into a larger celebration/event. A successful event can be a carnival of sorts which give people hands-on opportunities to engage in recycling/waste reduction awareness activities.

*People Love Freebies...Good Opportunity to Give Folks Tools for Simple Living: People love mugs, reusable canvas bags, T-shirts, magnets, composters etc...Also, many area businesses are happy to donate items, gift certificates or even trees! A few phone calls reap many rewards that will help make your event a huge success!

*Tree giveaway: Local paper processors or mills often will provide free trees to give away. Start with your paper recycler and go from there.

*Trash walk: This simple community activity is always a good one for people to get together and really make a difference. You can also do this with kids and talk endlessly about the opportunities of reducing waste through purchasing practices and also discuss recycling at home. It also gives people an opportunity to see the impact on nature and wildlife. Additionally, many local businesses provide free food and other items to support activities that provide a community benefit. Also, check with local government to get possible staff and other financial assistance such as promoting the event. Local media also offer free public service announcements.

*Kids parade and.....Most college campuses have childcare centers. Inviting kids to participate in college events is a boost to the event...kids are cute and draw attention to the event. Work with child care centers to prepare kids ahead of time. They can make costumes out of reusables such as paper bag masks and cereal boxes and even make signs to carry. When they get to the event, take time to do an activity with them such as the recycle lid toss or have them paint or draw something on a wall mural "Life in the Recycle Forest". Do a presentation where Oscar the Grouch sorts through an office garbage can and asks the audience what's reducible, reusable, recyclable. Then, don't forget to get the kids together on the music stage at the event and have them all sing "Happy Earthday to you!"

*Clothing drives, food collection, book collection, eyeglasses....Check with local social service agencies to see what is needed.

*Factoid signs: Gather numerous facts and make signs, laminate them or make them sturdy and place them throughout campus (be sure and pick these up after the event). You can mount these on wooden stakes and place them in the ground. One thing worth noting: we did this and it was so successful that people took some of these...one of the short comings of non-monitored displays etc...

*Fashion Show: Every college town seems to have a plethora of used clothing stores from standard Goodwill's to hip higher quality resale shops. Enlist these places to help you put on a reuse clothing fashion show. Also, there are a lot of clothes on the retail market that contain recycled pop bottles and cotton, alternative fibers like hemp and tencel and also organic cotton. Check with local retailers to create an amazing sustainability fashion show!

*COW (compost on wheels): Create a 3-tiered bike cart display (or something that can be rolled around) called a compost on wheels or COW display. Be creative on demonstrating how to compost, how it works and what to do with the end product. You can do it out of wood with a Plexiglas side so people can see the inner workings of a compost pile. Ideally, this would be setup so that you could compost people's food on the cart as part of the demonstration.

*Recycle Calendars: Good one for kids especially but could work on a college campus. Hold a recycled art contest and pick winners for a recycled art calendar. Get paper and printing donations from local businesses, newspapers etc...or maybe get University departments to help sponsor the calendar. And then of course, get the calendars printed up and distributed around campus as a thanx and also promo for recycling and waste reduction.

*Recycled Art Contest/Exhibit: same idea as above. Sponsor a recycled art contest and feature the winners in an Earthday art exhibit or other campus display area. There are often galleries at colleges and this might be something that could be featured as a part of an exhibit. Of course, get donations, make award certificates and reward the participants. This is a great opportunity for a media event!

*Make recycled art/garbage art: Have a table at your event with various items that don't have a home. Have people come to the table and make art projects. This can be anything from cans and papers to items like clean test tubes and styrofoam blocks. Another variation on this is to make an event piece of sculpture and have people come and add to it and watch it evolve!

*Guess the weight of the bale: Get a bale of material either from your processing area or local recycling marketer. A bale of plastic is good because it is light, but other bales work. Have folks guess the weight of the bale either by putting a weight on a piece of paper with their contact info. on there. Then announce the winners after the event and of course reward them with a program T-shirt, reusable mug or another donated item. Another variation is with a bale of cans, get folks to guess how many cans in the bale! It's fun and also educational.

*Paper Sorting Game: If you have folks source separate paper on campus, you can do a paper sorting game. Give folks a pile of papers and have them separate them into designated collections containers at the front of the game table. Have a sorting guidelines poster there for folks to look at as they perform this activity. And of course, reward them with a promotional item (key chain, mug, etc...) or donated item.

*Recycle Family: Guerilla theater is a fun activity for the participants and also the audience. Create a recycle family with a message: Live Simply or You can make a difference-reduce! Have the family dress-up with the creative reuse theme. For example; Have them all wear reused clothes (you can advertise who supplied to clothes or maybe have the family hand out info brochures on reducing your impact where you can list reuse stores in town). Have a baby in cloth diapers, and a kid carrying a notebook made of the clean back side of paper etc...the possibilities are endless!

*Costumes: Make costumes out of recycled materials. You can have a theme such as "endangered species" and maybe have a parade wearing the costumes. At the UO we had 2 tree costumes made from recycled polar fleece. These are well used at events and in presentations. The tree costumes have been great for going around campus to collect signatures for grassroots activities such as postcards, petitions, letter writing campaigns. Once again, the possibilities are endless!

*Life in the Recycle Forest Mural: Get some butcher paper and put it up on a blank wall at your event. Paint a recycle symbol as the "green" on a tree and invite people to come and paint a better world in the recycle forest. You will end up with an amazing mural and lots of happy people. Use water based paints.

*Wheel Game: Create a wheel like you see at a carnival. Cut it out of scrap wood, put nails in it and create a spin mechanism with an arrow where the wheel lands. Put a recycling question or a true/false statement on the wheel and get folks to spin, answer a question and of course, receive a prize.

*Re-use Parade: Do a parade through campus with costumes made of recyclables. Be creative and have placards with factoids or messages about waste reduction/recycling. Many recyclables make great instruments as well.

*HHW game: put a bunch of toxic household products on a table on one side and have the non-toxic alternatives on the other side. Label all items with numbers or letters. Have a worksheet and have people do a matching game where they match the toxic product with a non-toxic alternative. Have handouts on alternatives to toxic household products and handouts from your local waste management department on how to dispose of household hazardous waste. Maybe handout a non-toxic product sample that could be donated.

*Guess the resource: Another great fun "carnival type" game is guess the resource. Put paper, cans, bottles, plastic etc...on a table with a sign guess the resource. You can have folks or kids tell you what resources are used to produce the product. This is a great opportunity to engage folks in discussion about the changing resources and the value of recycling.

*Lid Toss: Cut out a garbage can and have several different sized holes in it labeled for recyclable items (i.e. glass, steel, paper). Put the can on a platform and decorate it. Make a sign that says "If you're not recycling, you're throwing it all away". Have clean lids that you've collected, all types and sizes. Give folks a few chances to get it in the can. Retrieve the lids from the back of the can and give prizes to the best recyclers!

*Shopping Game: Get several different items, ½ that are good consumer choices and the other half that are wasteful or toxic. Put the comparable items next to each other and have folks have a score card and choice the best products for the environment. Prizes for getting any amount right and something for folks who tried. Use this as a learning tool for consumer choices.

*What Comes From Trees?: Have a table with a bunch of different things just in disarray on the table. Have people identify an item that doesn't come from trees. (The trick is that everything has something from trees in it, even plastic has inks on it..the glue comes from trees.) Have some peanuts on the table as they are probably one of the only things that aren't made from trees. You can throw folks off by having some other nuts on the table as well as plastic bottles, cans with labels, paper, wood etc....it teaches folks how much we utilize trees in our consumption and also how valuable recycling is for conservation of our forests.

*Recycle Elves and Fairies: Have folks go around campus in recycling T-shirts and give people coupons for free coffee and a bagel at the student union (you can probably get this donated). The coupons would be to reward folks for being caught in the act doing something good for the environment. Upping the ante is possible by having some various prizes. Also, this is great PR and a great opportunity to promote the program.

*Mountain of Trash: There are many variations to this activity. At the UO, for a big impact, the crew gets up early for 3 days and arrange with the garbage guys to pull out all the bags of garbage from all campus buildings. (It's 3 days because of the garbage rotation and also increases the impact of the event..).

You can vary this, as we do occasionally. Last year we did it with just unrecyclable plastics and did a smaller display, that too was fun and effective. THE THEME STOP THROWING EVERYTHING IN THE TRASH!

*Trashcapade: Back in early 90's to raise awareness of trash volumes and the potential of recycling to reduce these volumes, we invited several well known faculty to participate in a "carry your trash" event. We also had many top administrators and student environmental activists join in the fun. Two very large clear plastic bags were issued to each of the volunteer participants. In one bag they put their trash that could not be recycled, the other bag contained their recyclables. They collected only from trash generated on campus.

*Mini Garbage Can Sort: A great presentation that can be used in theme and variation is a mini garbage can sort. Take an office size garbage can and fill it with things that are typically generated in an office. Have 4 boxes or recycle bins on or in front of a table. Label them: reduce, reuse, recycle, trash. Pull items out of the garbage can and ask the audience which box the item would go in. As you do that, discuss many options for the item. For example: an envelope can be recycled or reused. Discuss systems on campus that promote these. Envelopes can be sent to mail services for reuse if you have too many! Just one of the many examples and opportunities to educate the campus community on program projects!

*Grocery Bag Display: The object of this display is to demonstrate the effects of over packaging. Make a display with 3 compartments that would fit a brown paper grocery bag in each. Plexiglass is the best medium for this. Put the bags in the plastic boxes and cut out a good section in the front. Label each section as follows: #1 Contains packaged groceries purchased at the supermarket. #2 Contains packaging from the groceries in section #1, #3 Contains contents of packaging from #1. Of course, you need to buy 2 sets of the same groceries, put packaged groceries in #1, use the second batch for #2 and #3. Call this something catchy like: Buyer Beware! Precycle, think before you buy!

*Samples of Products: You can contact stores and get samples of great products that contain recycled content and are non-toxic. This helps folks see that there are available products on the market. Additionally, the American Plastics Council puts out a Source Book for recycled content items. There are several Buy Recycled web sites on-line.


*Grassroots Action: Especially on Earth Day, it is great to do a letter writing campaign or petition drive on a recycling issue. There are many opportunities for providing education and support on issues that effect recycling and waste reduction. This can be a good opportunity to get students to write letters to the University administration in support of campus recycling or maybe another environmental issue on campus. The Grassroots Recycling Network always has some excellent campaigns going that are pertinent to college campus interest. Check the web site for more info. on their different activities and legislative updates.

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