Go-to Guide for Employee Events A nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 1
Introduction Keep America Beautiful created this Go-to-Guide to support our sponsor s celebration of America Recycles Day SM with your employees. Use these turnkey events and materials to promote recycling awareness, commitment, and action in your workplace. This Go-to Guide is intended for use by our sponsors for America Recycles Day activities in your workplace. America Recycles Day SM, a program of Keep America Beautiful, is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. Every year on or around November 15 (America Recycles Day), millions turn out to thousands of local events held throughout the country to celebrate and learn more about their recycling programs. For more information, visit americarecyclesday.org Keep America Beautiful, Inc. is the nation s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With a strong national network of 1,200 affiliates and partners including state recycling organizations, we work with millions of volunteers who take action in their communities. Keep America Beautiful offers programs and engages in public-private partnerships that help create clean, beautiful public places, reduce waste and increase recycling while educating generations of environmental stewards. Through our actions, we help create communities that are socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound. For more information, visit kab.org 2 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 3
Why America Recycles Day? To showcase your company s leadership in recycling. To improve education about what is recycled in your community. To motivate employees to recycle more by providing a way to demonstrate their commitment. Reasons To Recycle Recycling is the easiest thing we can do 365 days a year to save energy, conserve natural resources and create green jobs. Recycling is a multi-billion dollar industry that employs millions of Americans and helps advance our clean energy economy. Our nation recycling rate of 34.7 percent annually: Saves the energy equivalent of nearly 229 million barrels of crude oil or nearly 20 days of all U.S. oil imports. Avoids greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 34 million cars from the road each year. 4 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 5
Resources to Reuse Customizable America Recycles Day materials to help promote your company s America Recycles Day activities among your employees. Celebrate in Style Order America Recycles Day promotional items, made from recycled content, to use for publicity and as employee incentives. Or, create materials locally using America Recycles Day guidelines. Download materials from americarecyclesday.org/toolkit America Recycles Day Logo Flyers Pledge Cards and Signage PowerPoint Template Sample Media Materials Sample Employee Promotional Emails Website Banners Take the Pledge THE NATIONAL RECYCLING RATE HAS INCREASED EVERY YEAR FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS. THE CURRENT RECYCLING RATE IS 34.7%. JOIN US IN RECYCLING MORE. For America Recycles Day 2013, I pledge to: Learn: Act: Share: I will find out what materials are collected for recycling in my community at AmericaRecyclesDay.org; Reduce my personal waste by recycling. In the next month, I will recycle more: (list the material you commit to recycling) Name: City/State: Email (optional): In the next month, I will encourage one family member or one friend to take the pledge. Printed on Post-Consumer Recycled Paper Give your Garbage Another Life What: When: Register your event at americarecyclesday.org Banners Bookmarks Buttons Posters Pencils Stickers T-Shirts Visit americarecyclesday.org/toolkit to tap into additional resources such as recycling fact sheets, links to government and industry recycling information, and visit www.iwanttoberecycled.org to identify where and what can be recycled in your community. Where: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Recycling Rules! AmericaRecyclesDay.org A nationwide initiative by Made with 100% post-consumer recycled content t material. What can be recycled in my community? Plastic bottles and caps Beverage cans Glass jars and bottles Food cans Paper Cereal boxes Juice boxes Find out more! What else can be recycled in your community? Go to americarecyclesday.org 6 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 7
Increase Awareness Educate employees about what, where and how to recycle at work and in the community. I Want To Be Recycled Staff a display in a high-traffic area with America Recycles Day signage and giveaways. Include fact sheets about your company s recycling sustainability goals, highlighting key accomplishments. Provide a list of what is recycled at your workplace. Ask employees to take the pledge at americarecyclesday.org or complete pledge cards. (See page 8 for details). Post flyers and send an email blast to promote the display. Photograph the event to share with internal audiences. Sample Display Including: Banner Vertical Table Tent List of what can be recycled Employee Recycling Activities Organize an E-Waste Recycling Drive for employees. Host a Waste-free Lunch and Learn Session featuring a local recycling expert guest speaker. Get your game on with recycling basketball. Set up basketball hoops over bins at different heights to give employees a fun release while they practice their aim shooting crumpled paper, soda cans and other recyclables into the recycle bin baskets. Ready, Set, Sort Competition Use a staff meeting for a speed-sorting competition to see who can sort the most recyclables in the least amount of time. Recruit contestants, outfit them in I Recycle T-shirts and feature them in advance publicity. Identify a local recycling expert or senior manager to serve as the referee. Outfit this individual with a whistle, stop watch, and hat r referee shirt. Provide each team with a set of the same garbage and recyclable items along with recycle bins. Play a fast-paced song during the sorting, and digitally capture the event to publicize later. Recognize Recycling Champions with Eco-friendly prizes such as zero-waste lunch, a reusable water bottle or an America Recycles Day giveaway. Distribute a handout about what can and cannot be recycled and follow up with a training session to review your company s recycling practices. Items to Sort: Aluminum Can, Aluminum Foil, Candy Wrapper, Chip Bag, Corrugated Cardboard, Drink Pouch, Envelope, Glass Drink Bottle, Magazine, Office Paper, Paperboard (tissue box), Paper Clip, Paper Coffee Cup, Paper Napkin, Plastic Bag, Plastic Report Cover, Plastic Soda Bottle, Rubber Band, Steel Can, and Yogurt Container. 8 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 9
Foster Commitment Provide employees with a direct way to demonstrate their commitment to recycle. Research show that asking people to make a commitment to recycle actually builds motivation that leads to lasting changes in behavior. The America Recycles Day Pledge can be a stand-alone activity or used in conjunction with other employee awareness events. For more activities, visit www.americarecycles.org/toolkit. Pledge Online Encourage employees to Take the pledge at americarecyclesday.org through a customized America Recycles Day email. Post a message on your company intranet, employee blogs or message boards. Ask employees to add to their email signature block the Take the Pledge message. Ask your workplace to take the Recycling at Work Pledge. Pledge to have your workplace recycle more of materials generated at work by 10 percent over the next two years. Spread the Word Webinar Conduct a webinar on your company s recycling initiatives with a moderated Q&A sessions. Recycling Area Signs Post America Recycles Day signage near company recycling bins and stations. Recycling Memo Distribute an employee memo about your on-site recycling program. Social Media and More Highlight recycling through your social media, send a customized America Recycles Day email and post it in break areas. Text to Pledge Encourage employees to text Recycle Pledge to 91011 Pledge Cards Find a high-traffic location such as a break room or cafeteria where you can set up a table to stage the pledge drive, and staff the table with employee volunteers. Download instructions, the table tent and America Recycles Day pledge cards from americarecyclesday.org/toolkit and print them on recycled-content paper. Distribute an email blast and post flyers throughout your facilities with pledge drive details. Offer I recycle stickers, buttons or other giveaways to help spread the word. Sign up employees to receive periodic Keep America Beautiful emails for recycling information. 10 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 11
Encourage Action Provide measurable ways for employees to recycle. Special Collection Drive Broaden employees understanding of what can be recycled by organizing a special collection drive for hard-to-recycle items. Determine the length of your drive, and then identify best practices and collection locations. Promote the drive internally and externally by customizing America Recycles Day materials. Digitally capture the event and publicize your results. Recycling Heroes Connect with an established national collection program. Plastic Bags abagslife.com Electronics epa.gov/ows/conservematerials/ecycling/donat.htm Rechargeable Batteries & Cell Phones call2recycle.org Other hard-to-recycle items terracycle.net/brigades?show_all=true Engaging Employees to Recycle At Work Encourage employees to increase recycling in the workplace Mug Shots Promote the use of reusable mugs as a normative behavior at work. Photograph employees holding their reusable mugs and post them on mug shot flyers around the office, break room, company Facebook page or net to the office coffee station. Take it to the next level and encourage participation by featuring well-known, recognizable company figures like the CEO, office manager, or the office clown striking a funny pose. Internal Recycling Competition Break into teams and designate a leader for each team. Work with your building management, janitorial staff, or recycling hauler to organize a system for measuring recycling per team. Determine the length of your competition, and plan to weigh and track material for your different teams. Plan to communicate standings widely and repeatedly at each stage. Create a scoreboard that you can place in a high-traffic location and update as needed. Celebrate Recycling Heroes by catching employees green-handed in the act of recycling. Set the length of the contest and focus your hero search in the lunch room, break room, or the entire building. Outfit a team of spotters in America Recycles Day T-shirts and charge these employees with identifying and rewarding colleagues who recycle. Decide what happens when the team spots a Recycling Hero. Consider awarding an Ecofriendly prize, creating a recycling cheer, taking a photo, announcing it over the intercom or sending a company wide email, Recognize Recycling Heroes through your company s internal communications to encourage even more recycling in the workplace. 12 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 13
A Special Thank You to our 2013 Sponsors A nationwide initiative by 14 November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful November 15 America Recycles Days A Nationwide Initiative by Keep America Beautiful 15
For more information, visit americarecyclesday.org Keep America Beautiful, Inc. 1010 Washington Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901 203.659.3000 1030 15TH Street, N.W. Suite 490 West Washington, DC 20005 202.688.0600 A nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful 16 November Made 15 with America 100% Recycles post-consumer Days recycled-content A Nationwide paper Initiative by Keep America Beautiful