Students for Environmental Concerns

Community Organized Recycling Efforts (CORE):
“More Than Green”(Project Title)

Anthony Santarelli
ACE
Sophomore
Spring 2010
Faculty Sponsors: Madhu Khanna (primary)
James Treat
Project Duration: September 2007 to May 2008

Sustainable living is a cultural value which must be cultivated, even when some of the practices, such as recycling, are something that a community and its leadership expressively support. Despite the fact that recent University initiatives have increased public discourse of sustainability, there are limited resources to assist the personal practice of recycling of many residents and owners of multi-unit housing facilities and commercial properties. Recycling may be the most often and most commonly practiced form of sustainable living by the average citizen and how easy this is to do, practically speaking, has a large impact on whether or not they will. Improving the situation presents both cultural and community planning challenges; unsuccessful efforts in the past have illustrated that merely allocating more resources or changing policies in not enough to actually effectively change behavior patterns. We (CORE) have a plan which we feel can successfully foster the changes in the overall community perception of and practice in recycling, and ideally sustainable living in general.
Community Organized Recycling Efforts (CORE), is a student group formed in the last month in order to initiate a campaign designed to increase access to and awareness of recycling resources, as well as the participation and importance of recycling in the UIUC community. In order to foster recycling and to increase its perceived importance in Champaign community, we believe a large-scale effort is needed which entails both education & entertainment, and which engages many student and community groups, academic departments, and local businesses with a diverse array of programs. We’ve named our campaign for the 2007-2008 academic year, “More Than Green,” because sustainability should mean more to people than abstract concept- it should be part of their everyday lives.
This project began over a year ago with a proposal, developed by two MBA students and brought to Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS), for a recycling-geared campaign targeted at students with intended further impact on the broader community. The central theory of this proposal was that, if a large group of people (1000-2000) could demonstrate active recycling over a short but significant time-frame, the demonstration itself (and the surrounding publicity) might be enough to initiate a change within the community, on both social and policy levels. To coordinate such an effort, however, would require tapping into large connected groups of people willing to actively participate. The Greek system in Champaign was selected as a prime targets for the campaign as it was a large community (1) affected by current recycling restrictions, (2) with philanthropy as stated goal, and (3) a population that many would associate with less-than-sustainable living practices. After a year’s worth of outreach organized by a small group of 4 or 5 dedicated individuals, the first meeting of CORE was attended by over 30 members, including individuals representing the Greek system, different community publications, and a variety of interested student groups. Some of the main goals of this campaign include (1) developing a “Recycling Coordinator” position for student housing communities (Greek, other private and UIUC dorms), (2) coordinating a 1-2 month period of coordinated recycling (weekly pickups with documentation and assessment of success), (3) finally approaching the city council or relevant planning board when our campaign has yielded enough information make recommendations.
Our main goal for this fall, for which we are applying for the SURE grant, is to implement the initial Education and Training; “Recycling Coordinator” position at student housing facilities. This recycling coordinator would have a role similar to that of a health educator position at other housing facilities. The reason for this is to have someone who lives at the various residencies around campus who we could train to teach their house-mates things like what can and cannot be recycled, and where their particular pick-up dates and receptacles are located. We would then stay in contact with these coordinators in order to collect data on participation and results of their recycling efforts. This information is extremely important as it will allow us to start researching exactly how many people participate and want to recycle.
The research is the most important aspect of our current campaign. We are in desperate need of information. Foremost, we need to be informed before approaching officials who could facilitate large scale changes, and to better plan our grass roots efforts of recycling in the meanwhile. In addition we are still in the research stages for understanding the logistics of recycling, which will better dictate the specific goals for a recycling campaign, as well as the strategies to best achieve it. By using this research and that of the participants and involved parties, we could gather the support of student and community groups, useful advisers, and those in positions of authority.
We believe the best way to get a better idea of the students’ consensus of recycling would be to just ask them. We want to conduct surveys with questions ranging for instance, from, “Do you recycle” to “Would you be willing to pay x amount to have recycling where you live”. Not only could we conduct the surveys with the general students, but also with those that participate with our program or come to local events. We are also looking to document efforts (through film and interview), and to evaluate the success of a test program with five to ten student houses. By taking into account all of this information, we think we can have a significant impact on community recycling.
With this grant, we would have resources to start our research phase. At the current time, we need money to facilitate programs at student houses, such as supplying plastic collection bags or receptacles so they actually have a means to recycle. On top of that, we are trying to create incentives for participation, or possible prizes for top participators. By having an incentive to spur people to start recycling, I think we can show people how truly easy it is, and at some point, we would hope that incentives would not be necessary. It would just become a normal part of everyone’s daily routine.

Budget
Standard size:13"H x 23½"W x 16"D @ 25.00 each x 5 = $125Pick-up truck rental - $35-$50 per day x 2 days = $60-$100
Gas expenses - $50
Possible speaker - $100-$200
Entertainment (musical) - $200 - $300

Publicity for awareness events

Advertisement in Newspapers -
DI - $ 8.00 per column inch x 5-6 inches of column space - $40-$48 per ad per day
Buzz - $0.35 per word - 40 words- $14 for one time run - Classified Ad
Other ads - $50
Food for attendees -
$3-$4 per sandwich x 200 people = $600-$800
Copying costs for fliers and informational materials -
$.10 per copy x 300-500 Copies - $30-$50
Photograph Development - $0.35 per copy of a photo x 100 photos = $35

Surveys and polls

Cost for flier copying - 500 copies x $0.10 per copy = $50
Postage if it will be mailed to some residents - $0.41 per stamp x 500 surveys = $205
Envelopes - 500 envelopes x $3.00 for a package of 30 = $51