Albert Boufarah Describes how to Bring Your Community Together to Recycle
Individual actions when it comes to recycling responsibly are a necessity even if they seem to be minor. However, the actions of a group or community can also be extremely powerful. Although it might seem overwhelming, there are actually plenty of relatively simple ways to make large-scale changes in your community regarding waste. For example, organizing a recycling drive, a donation event, or developing a compost program for a local school are all methods of promoting strong recycling practices within your community. Albert Boufarah is an entrepreneur and the CEO of SAMR Inc., a recycling center based in Lakewood, New Jersey. Through his time as CEO of SAMR, he has learned a great deal about the importance of recycling and the various ways to inspire people to get involved. Keep reading for four ways to bring your community together to recycle, according to Albert Boufarah.
Celebrate Earth Day as a Community
Earth Day is held annually on April 22. Celebrating this international holiday is a great way to get your community interested in recycling and the environment at large. Not only is it an excuse to hold a fun event, but it’s a way to educate the people in your town about the impact that their individual actions, such as recycling, can have on the planet. To get people involved, consider hosting a lecture series where different townspeople who are knowledgeable about the environment, perhaps a science professor at a local college or a government official, come and discuss the importance of recycling in a public setting leading up to Earth Day.
To help teach children the importance of the holiday as well as the importance of recycling, consider hosting a movie night and show a documentary or other type of educational film on the environment. Finally, you can’t go wrong celebrating Earth Day with a community cleanup initiative. According to Albert Boufarah, not only is this type of event super easy to organize but it will show people how easy and rewarding it can be to volunteer and care for the environment.
Organize a Recycling Drive
Second, Albert Boufarah asserts that organizing a recycling drive in your neighborhood is a fantastic way of bringing the community together to recycle. Do a bit of research in advance to figure out if there is a local recycling center or even a charity that might need recyclable materials. From there, find a location, perhaps a local school or someone’s home, where members of the community can bring their recyclable goods. Make clear which types of items are welcome — bottles, glass, newspapers, plastic, etc.… — and once they’ve been dropped off, arrange to have them driven to the recycling depot or charity of your choice. Ideally, try and host an event of this kind at least once per month.
Create a Drop-off Site for E-Waste
According to Albert Boufarah, e-waste is a fairly recent phenomenon owing to the rapid rise of technology. The toll of throwing away an old computer or cell phone in a landfill is extremely high, which is why Boufarah recommends creating a local drop-off site for e-waste in your community. This site would specifically be for old devices that are still functional but that the person no longer wants. Schools are a great place to drop off such items as they are often in need of computers or tablets for their students. Reach out to a few schools to see if they would be interested in becoming a designated drop-off location for used electronic devices in the neighborhood.
Host a Donation Event
Another event to get the community excited about recycling is a donation drive. A donation drive is an event where participants are asked to bring old toys, clothes, furniture, and more to a local park or recreation center. Attendees are invited to socialize and at the end of the event, all items they donated are brought to a local charity. Albert Boufarah suggests that this is the perfect way to motivate people who otherwise couldn’t be bothered to drop items off at a charity on their own. By adding a social aspect to donating and recycling, it will make your community more excited to partake as they can clear out their house without having to take it to the dump.
