Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

A term used as part of a waste management hierarchy, with an aim being for individuals to be encouraged to undertake more environmentally responsible actions.

Promoting the 3Rs (which is a popular and shortened version of the terms), and other sustainable practices, has been a noticeable way in which local authorities, community groups and organisations have engaged with raising environmental awareness. Each target group, and audience, will have different requirements in understanding the message being communicated.

Different groups that might be considered, include:
• Colleagues.
• Visitors.
• Children and Young People.
• Volunteers.
• Community /Environmental Groups.
• Local Businesses.

No matter what activity or message somebody wants to convey, it is important to first decide on what the specific requirement, or objective, of the message is. This needs to be clearly stated.

Once this has been decided then any promotional material, presentation or other means of communication can be more easily produced. If you are going to put some effort into something, you want to make sure that you are going to hit the target. Think of it like a dart board, if you don't know in which direction to throw your darts, it is unlikely that you are going to hit the target, let alone the bulls-eye.

Having decided on your message, how are you going to make sure it is the right one for the people within the group? Don't forget that there can be a diversity of people within each group - so get to know the likely make-up of the audience. There's little point relying on a fancy graphical presentation if, for example, the audience is a group of visitors who are partially sighted; audio and tactile information would be more appropriate.

If your audience is to be school children aged 11-14, don't use technical language that would be suitable for university students: The message would not be understood.

Businesses, on the whole, are in the business of making money. Identify ways of saving money for them. Include other benefits such as their business being seen as more enlightened by customers or actively supporting environmental initiatives (a consequence of which can increase their customer base and income).

By promoting the benefits and positive aspects of sustainable practices, businesses will be more likely to be encouraged to implement good practices. By all means state the negatives and disadvantages, but not in a way that appears doom laden and apocalyptic - 'Recycle your waste otherwise society will collapse and you will die'; probably isn't going to attract many takers. Try and strike a balance between viewpoints and present facts intelligently and truthfully.

Try and work out:
• Why your audience might be interested.
• What they might be interested in.
• How they can put words into action.
• Where they can go to find out more.

Promoting your message
How might you start to promote the 3Rs to the groups identified? There can be a range of possibilities, for which the following can act as a guide.

Colleagues
When dealing with work colleagues don't antagonise or alienate them; you will have to work with them, so keep things more informal and fun and you may be surprised how far you can go.

Identifying what resources can be reduced, or eliminated, can also help to improve process efficiency. There might be a financial incentive attached to any material savings made. Consider:
• Informal discussions over break.
• Topical discussions, especially over articles in the news.
• Quizzes.
• Light-hearted competition.
• Introduce recycling bins. This is an easy task to achieve and can start to encourage the separation of paper, cans (drinks), plastic (e.g. from milk containers) etc.

Visitors
Signage and well-positioned recycling bins and facilities will encourage visitors to use them whilst they are on site.

• Coffee cups, spoons, water cups, biscuit wrappers, notebooks, etc. should all be recycled.
• Promoting a positive recycling atmosphere to visitors can help to spread the message further after they have left your workplace - they may even introduce something of what they have seen into their own workplace, or domestic life.
• You may even be praised by a visitor in their conversations with others as an example of what they consider good practice.

Children and Young People
Keep things fun for this group, but make sure there is a learning element included so they can remember the purpose of an activity.
• There could be a container of clean (and safe - no sharp objects or edges) items, which could be sorted into different materials. These could be compared for weight and volume.
• Encouraging creativity - such as making posters, stickers, or models from recycled materials - can really help to engage children and young people in the importance of recycling.
• Games can be devised which show where materials come from, locally, nationally or globally.
• A general investigation could also be carried out showing the harm and damage that can happen to the environment when resources are over exploited from the planet - mining waste, deforestation, drying up of rivers and lakes, air/soil/water pollution, enhanced CO2 levels in the atmosphere and over-fishing. The use of resources sustainably can be shown to reduce these negative effects.
• Card games can be devised, a bit like Top Trumps, for recycling issues.

Volunteers
These may be individuals or as groups. Try and promote activities that are relevant to their needs.
• Promote the use of the three 'R's' to volunteers so they can consider this in the work they do. For example, they may be volunteers for a charity that helps tidy people's gardens.
• Organic waste recycling through composting which can eventually be used as top-dressing for lawns; soil improvement for planted (e.g. shrubs, flowers) areas or for mulching around plants.
• Repairing fencing or outdoor furniture will assist in reducing the need for new materials - and is a good way to sustainably maintain amenity and conservation areas.
• Paper can be shredded and used as a mulch, although it's probably best to use it mixed within a compost heap.
• Wood - A lot of wood material can be chipped for use as a mulch, or a footway in the natural environment - this will help reduce soil erosion on popular routes.
• Animal manures, especially FYM from a local farmer, as an ideal soil improver.
• Large logs or branches can be positioned in woodland areas to decompose naturally, encouraging fungi, and insects to colonise the area, producing 'habitat piles' of logs.
• Old wood from fence panels or furniture, as well as offcuts and scraps from wood merchants, can be reused to make bird or bat boxes, or hedgehog houses.
Community/Environmental Groups
Many of these groups will already be carrying out some good reduction, reuse and recycling activities. Where they aren't carrying out some areas of good practice then you can help identify which areas can be introduced or improved on.

Further raising awareness of the group's activities to their local community may help. This might be through contacting the local radio or newspaper, or even producing a downloadable podcast or creating a newsletter (on recycled paper, of course).

There could be environmental action days where a road, or part of a neighbourhood is cleaned up.

Collection days could be organised where a range of materials and products that could be recycled are collected. Any proceeds from these could be reinvested back into the community, through further action days.

Awareness events could be organised:
• How to grow your own vegetables.
• How to make a sustainable garden.
• What else can the local authority recycle?
• Bring and swap plants.
• Identifying local biodiversity, etc.

Produce literature, and signage to create interpretation trails for local amenities - aiming to encourage greater use of what's available.

Promote networking within the community, which might include utilising:
• School grounds.
• Church grounds.
• Community garden, especially with the involvement of the local authority.
• Garden maintenance.
• Enhanced street cleaning - removal of litter and graffiti to support the local authority.

A lot of these areas could also be utilised as training and learning grounds for people interested in the outdoor environment.

Creating a coordinated and linked-up network of local facilities, users, trainers and learners can help to create a sustainable local social and economic community.

Local Businesses
Speaking to local businesses to find out what they might need to improve their environmental practices as well as the use of flyers and periodic (e.g. quarterly) newsletters can help to promote recycling and the environmental agenda.

Businesses like to save money, and certainly not waste it. Focus on the financial side and the promotion of recycling and other good practices and this will have a good chance of being taken on board by businesses, in particular how this can be seen as a social positive and may encourage retention of customers or the attraction of new customers.