Guidance for Medium Communities

Medium communities may have a small, dedicated budget for recycling outreach, perhaps without the in-house communications resources of larger metropolitan communities. This may give you more freedom to use elements of this toolkit on your website and link to the city, county, or township websites.

Some best practices for medium community consideration include:

• Contract with a communications company with past recycling or waste reduction experience or use this toolkit to bring them up to speed on industry nuances.
• Check any hauling contracts to ensure there is a plan for recycling, compost and waste reduction education.
• Partnering with neighboring communities to share resources and possibly negotiate better contract prices from service providers.
• Annual drop-off events for household chemicals and electronics help keep these materials out of the waste stream and are great ways to talk to residents.
• Shredded paper events are popular and bring communities together.
  If curbside recycling is not an option, consider alternatives -
  • Community collection containers in parking lots of municipal buildings, larger stores, or churches
  • Subscription services with local collectors