Does your workplace or school recycle? Over a year ago, my employer did not have a recycling program in place. It wasn't until someone I worked with was recommending everyone watch the film Al Gore is known for, An Inconvenient Truth, that I was able to bring up the question - why weren't we recycling at work? The idea of implementing a recycling program was rejected in the beginning due to various costs, people putting trash in the recycling and a list of other excuses. So we got permission to bring our own recycling bins to work as long as we were the ones who emptied them.
For about a year we had three recycling bins and a few people who would take turns bringing the recycling home to put in their own bins that were picked up by the city they lived in. My point is, just because the opportunity is not there or the service is not offered does not mean you should give up what you believe in. There were other people within the company who began to take their recycling home as well.
Eventually a company-wide recycling program began and a committee was put together to address other ways we could be more environmentally friendly at work. Every employee was issued their own mug to cut back on the use of styrofoam cups. A ride-share or carpooling program began for those who wanted to cut back on the cost of gas or reduce their carbon footprint.
Just talking about this to my family and friends made others realize that their workplace was not recycling either. I had a family member take some bins to work and put in place a recycling program too! Since it is a chain of stores it started to catch on at more stores and people were taking responsibility to make those small changes to help make a difference.
What are small changes that you can make at your work or child's school to encourage recycling?
