Cities & Towns
Thanks for checking out this webpage – the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign is excited that you want to recycle more paper in your community!
How can your community help our campaign?
The MassRecycles Paper Campaign is looking for our cities and towns to
run our campaign.
5 Steps you can take to get your City/Town to Recycle More
Paper.
Each year Massachusetts residents and businesses throw away 1.5 million tons of paper that they could be recycling. What’s more, it costs about $100 million to dispose of that paper at a landfill or incinerator. Our campaign is about getting more paper out of the trash and into the bin.
- Sign the resolution. Work with your city/town to sign the resolution and join the MassRecyclesPaper campaign. It’s easy. To date 171 of Massachusetts cities and towns have joined the campaign and are implementing efforts to recycle more paper in their community.
- Set a goal. Get out your recycling calculator and find out the amount of Recoverable Paper in your municipality. The instructions can be found in the Grassroots Guide and here. The recycling calculator can help you figure out the potential economic and environmental savings to your community by recycling paper. Once you have some numbers you can set some goals for the year and let your community know what your goal is for the Paper Campaign. This way you can show people that their efforts are making a difference.
- Read the Grassroots Guide to Recycling More Paper. Not only does this guide provide instructions on calculating the amount of recoverable paper in your municipal waste stream, but you can also find tips on how to get started, tips on working with the media, case studies and more!.
- Send out a press release. Sending out a press release can help increase awareness and create positive impressions about your communities recycling and waste reduction programs, which in turn will help you reach the ultimate goal of increased recycling participation. Make sure to publicize all of your hard work and get the word out about what your city/town is doing to recycle more paper. We wrote up a press release template for you to make it easy. All you have to do is fill in a few blanks and it’s good to go. (link to press release)
- Now you are Ready To Take Action. After signing the resolution and doing some light background reading, its time to take action. If your residents don’t know what to recycle, or have questions about certain items, they might just throw paper in the trash.
To prevent paper getting into the waste stream:
- Use our List of Papers that can be recycled in your community. Have copies of this at your recycling center, transfer station, City/Town Hall, Public Library, Public Schools and local events.
- Run these ads. The campaign put these ads together to make life easier for YOU. Go ahead, print out a poster and hang one up at inside your City/Town Hall. But don’t stop there. Consider the following venues to make sure these ads get maximum viewing time:
- FREE Public Service Announcements – on local television stations, and in newspapers.
- Blow up and use the “We’re Not Picky About Paper” ad or if you’re a curbside town the “Curb Your Paper” ad at the library, city/town hall, bus stop or local shopping center.
- Partner with your local businesses to encourage them to be green and recycle more paper. Provide them with a link to our “Recycling is Everybody’s Business” ad and encourage them to print it out and hang it in a location where all of their employees can see.
- Hold a local Paper Recycling event. America Recycles Day and (November 14th), Earth Day (April 22) are two national holidays that are perfect opportunities to celebrate and educate your residents about recycling more paper.
- Put up a table, bring informational brochures (make sure they are printed on 100% Post Consumer Content Recycled Paper).
- Set up the Paper Recycling Quiz. You’ll be baffled by how many people don’t know all of the answers.
- Hold a Shredding Event. This is the perfect opportunity for residents to dispose of their unwanted private documents and recycle them at the same time.
- We all know it doesn’t have to be America Recycles Day or Earth
Day to celebrate Recycling. Hold your event on any day of the
year. Reach out to a variety of audiences by requesting to put up
an informational table at local community or sporting
event.
Learn about other cities & towns are doing
The Town ofBy Robin Chapell,
In the
summer of 2007, the Selectmen were asked to sign a resolution
that the Town of
In the
Winter of 2007, residents received tax bill
inserts with information on paper recycling (in addition to
composting and
Christmas tree recycling). In the Spring
of 2008, we inserted Mass Recycles flyer “we’re not picky about paper.” Our Recycling hauler, Russell Disposal, had
his educator,
We also
started a 6 month
Our
November winner, a mother with 5 little children, was nominated by her
neighbor
because she was always ahead of the “green” trend and she seldom had
more than
one barrel of trash, while recycling containers lined her sidewalk. In December, our winner was nominated by his
father because he got recycling going in his school.
In January a family of 6 won because of the
amount of recycling they all did collectively.
February’s winner, nominated by her husband, recycles or reuses
every
tidbit of paper, glass, aluminum and plastic she finds.
And in March, the winner was nominated by his
wife because he puts out practically zero trash each week.
The last winner was nominated by her adult
daughter because she always makes sure that everything gets recycled
during all
family events.
One of our schools also conducted a Green
Experiment. They weighed their
trash for 2 weeks, learned about recycling, and
reweighed their lunchroom trash. The
results were amazing. During that time
period, the parents learned what they were doing and were asked to help. This really helped to spread the word around
about recycling in
We did not
quite make our goal of 2008 tons if FY 2008, but we did increase
our recycling by 9.2%!
We set new goals for FY 2009 and we expect to have increased our
recycling
rates yet again.
Earth Day Shredding Events (Summer 2008 Archive of our
Community Spotlight)
Last month, 11 Massachusetts communities hosted paper-shredding events
as part of the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign. These events all had
the goal of providing local residents and businesses with free or
affordable ways to securely shred and recycle their sensitive
documents. The response was overwhelming with hundreds of people
attending events of all sizes throughout the state to shred and recycle
over 15 tons of paper! Following are a few highlights from around
the state.
Springfield MRF Advisory Board Regional
Shredding Events
With shredding events is Northampton, Agawam and Greenfield,
the Springfield MRF Advisory Board hosted one of the largest paper
shredding events and had excellent turnout. Combined, these three
events generated 7 tons of shredded paper from over 300 western
Massachusetts residents!
ProShred, Inc. brought mobile shredding trucks to each event and
provided services free of charge. All of the paper collected from
the event will be sent to local facilities to be recycled and made into
hard cover book boards and game boards. The Springfield MRF
Advisory Board hosted these events not only to provide shredding
services, but also to educate the public on the importance of recycling
paper and shredding secure documents.
The Springfield MRF Advisory Board’s mission is to “promote recycling
and to advise the Department of Environmental Protection and the
Springfield MRF on enhancing the quality and quantities of recyclables
in the region.” The great success of this event has prompted the
Board to schedule another group of paper shredding events that will be
held on October 4, 2008.
Town of Danvers/DPW Earth Day Event
Quoted as the town’s “most successful event ever,” by event organizer
Pam Irwin, the 2-day extravaganza in Danvers provided paper shredding
services to town residents, schools, town offices and small businesses.
Got Books? and Big Brother, Big Sister were also present to
collect reusable items including books, videos and clothing.
ProShred, Inc. was also the shredding service provider at this
event. Event attendees were allowed to shred two boxes of paper
for free, and any additional boxes for only $5. ProShred
collected $285 from these additional boxes and donated all of it to the
Danvers Community Council. The money donated from the event will
be used to help pay energy bills for struggling families in the
community.
At the end of the 2-day event 6,820 pounds of paper was collected,
shredded and recycled, that is over 3 tons! The town plans on
holding similar events twice a year.
Truro Recycling Committee Free Shredding Event
With a winter population barely over 2,000 you might not expect a busy
shredding event in Truro during April. But Truro’s Recycling
Committee members kept themselves busy shredding sensitive documents
long after the free four-hour event.
The dedicated committee members weren’t expecting a big crowd, so they
borrowed two simple office shredders from the Town Hall and the Council
on Aging. Event coordinator and Chair of the Truro Recycling
Committee Bob Holt estimated that about 12 residents came to the event
bringing lots of paper. “They brought so much stuff that we
worked steadily for the four hours scheduled, and then some!” stated
Holt. The members made sure that every sensitive document that
was brought to the event was properly shredded and recycled.
When all the shredding was done, their pile of shredded paper was an
impressive 4 feet high and 5 feet wide! Without the dedication of
the Truro Recycling Committee much of this paper might not have been
properly shredded and recycled. The Committee plans on holding
another free shredding event next year.
Cape Cod Paper Recycling Campaign (April 2008 Archive of our Community Spotlight)
Use less and recycle more paper! That message speaks louder when municipalities join in an effort to promote the benefits of recycling paper. On Earth Day 2007, that is exactly what happened on Cape Cod.
How it started
When the idea of a paper recycling initiative was discussed among Cape
solid waste managers and recycling and solid waste committees, it was
agreed that the message to recycle more paper might have greater impact
if presented as a unified effort. That message kicked-off on
Earth Day 2007 with a press release announcing the
Use Less and Recycle More Cape Paper Campaign.
To keep a consistent message, several materials were developed for the campaign such as posters and flyers for display at transfer stations, town halls, municipal buildings or other high visibility areas, business-card size magnets that promote the campaign, and table cards that can be used on tables or near registers in local coffee shops and as handouts at town events in conjunction with table exhibit boards.
How it works
The campaign structure itself is flexible allowing towns to participate
according to their available time and resources. Meetings are
held every 3 to 4 months and regular bulletin emails keep everyone,
including those who cannot attend a meeting, up to date on campaign
activities. Occasionally, a guest is invited to share what their
organization is doing to increase paper recycling on the Cape and if
there is a potential for that group to assist in promoting the Cape
paper campaign.
A menu of opportunities to promote the campaign includes local fairs and festivals, local organizations, chambers of commerce, the children’s museum, libraries, paper shredding events, town web sites, the Mass Recycles Paper (MRP) Resolution that several Cape municipalities have recently signed, recycling committee or town newsletters, public access television, public access radio, and schools (including exploring resources at the regional vocational high schools that might work with the campaign effort).
Examples of Outreach
Examples of past and upcoming outreach by some of the municipalities
are: an information table at the Cape Cod Children’s Museum Paper
Making Day; week set aside to promote recycling during the children’s
story time slot at a library; an ad in the daily paper that encouraged
residents and businesses to join the cape campaign to recycle more
paper; speakers at neighborhood association meetings; and articles in
the paper. A shredding event is planned for April, and the
potential for a second shredding event is being explored. MassDEP
or MRP recycling exhibit boards have been or are planned to be
displayed at town hall; town meeting; a transfer station open house/art
show and at a business expo. In addition, the Cape Cod Chamber of
Commerce borrowed the paper recycling exhibit board and the Cape
campaign poster to display at a local wellness expo - an example of a
local organization helping to promote the paper campaign.
At the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign (MRP) kick-off this past November,
the MRP Campaign Chairman referred to the fifteen Cape Cod
municipalities as trailblazers for their early efforts to boost paper
recycling. These towns include Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster,
Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans,
Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Wellfleet, and Yarmouth. Also, a
press release by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce noted that these
municipalities inspired the Chamber to expand its office paper and
cardboard recycling. See both press releases on the Mass Recycles
Paper website under “In the Press.”
As the Cape paper campaign moves into its second year, the municipalities have made some progress in getting the word out, and there is more to do. Boosting paper recycling reduces disposal costs, saves natural resources, and creates new products; it makes good sense. Sending that message out with a unified voice is just what the Cape paper campaign is trying to do.
For more information about the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign, contact Karen Patterson at paper@massrecycle.org or 617-338-0244.
DANVERS PAPER RECYCLING CAMPAIGN (Feb/March 2008 Archive of our Community Spotlight)
When MassRecycle announced the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign, Danvers Recycling Coordinator Pam Irwin saw a great opportunity to educate residents of her community about all the paper that can be recycled and (hopefully) increase her town’s paper recycling tonnage. Pam immediately wrote a communications plan for the Town, including outreach to all publics in Danvers…homeowners, employees, students, etc. in a variety of ways…newsletter, flyers, cable TV, etc.
In September 2007 Danvers Selectmen approved the paper recycling communications plan and Pam began putting it into place. Starting with town employees, she made up a flyer reminding them to recycle ALL paper and this flyer was distributed with their payroll check.
During Danvers annual Open House in October, Pam highlighted the paper campaign using materials borrowed from Sharon Kishida, the DEP’s Municipal Assistance Coordinator for Northeast District 2. The display included plenty of take-home literature. Also in October Pam ran a “recycling” poster contest with Sixth Graders. The 13 winning posters became the 2008 recycling calendar, free to residents. The Poster Contest awards ceremony was held during the December School Committee meeting, which was broadcast on the local cable station. The posters that did not make the calendar now decorate the lobby of the Danvers Business Division office for all customers to see, read and learn.
In November, Pam celebrated America Recycles Day with a weekend (both days!) textile, book and document shredding recycling collection event. Throughout this event she asked participating residents to sign paper recycling pledge cards. Also in November she produced a TV show, “How to Recycle in Danvers”, on the local cable station. This program is shown regularly and she has received a lot of positive feedback from it.
Just this month Pam has received an inquiry from the Cub Scouts. They are having a large (70 cub scouts) meeting and want to earn their environmental badge. She will be talking paper recycling! Finally, this month the local (weekly) newspaper, the Danvers Herald, is doing a two-part story on Danvers recycling. Pam made sure there was plenty in there about paper recycling.
According to Pam, the key is to keep your eyes and ears open for any and all opportunities to communicate with your pubic. Education is key to the success of recycling.
For more information about the Danvers paper campaign, please contact Pam Irwin, Recycling Coordinator at pirwin@mail.danver-ma.org or 978-774-0005 x 1633.
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