Resources

If you manage recycling and waste programs in a college town, the student population is your biggest logistical nightmare.  Students are itinerant – they roll into town in autumn, pour out again in the spring and disappear entirely a few years later.

This means they’re a lot less invested in the long term health of your city than your permanent residents are; and, therefore, they are less likely to think about proper waste disposal or the benefits of recycling.

Working with student populations can be complex and variable. They may have come from towns with recycling programs different from yours. Depending on their upbringing, they might know little or nothing at all about recycling. They have new priorities, academic and social goals which keep them from thinking about larger community or environmental issues. They might also be facing adult responsibilities for the first time, with varying degrees of success.

We know, we know. Managing your city’s waste and recycling programs is hard enough, but when you’re a college town, dealing with the massive influx of students at the beginning of the school year is an entirely different challenge.  And right now you’re probably dealing with the mounds of waste they just left behind. The last thing you want to do is think ahead to the next semester, when a fresh batch of college students come pouring in.

Yet, the autumn orientation season can set the tone for your next calendar year.

So getting ahead of it now to turn orientation into opportunity can mean the difference between a stressful job and a much, much easier one.

Communicating with students selling at your school-end garage sale is an important part of the planning process. When running a curbside event, vendors from individual homes need streamlined information to not only all be on the same page, but to run a successful (and safe) sale. 

Here Are Tips to Help Make Student Vendors Successful at Your School-End Garage Sale:

People make a lot of assumptions about today’s youth, college and university students in particular. “Millennials are lazy, entitled and self-absorbed,” an early Time Magazine article screamed. But the truth is far more complex, and the current college crowd continues to defy the stereotypes.  

So, how to college students really feel about recycling?

Well, the good news is that today’s young people have grown up with a sense of global awareness about sustainability and the importance of green living. There are also aspects of their collective behaviors that, properly directed, can turn them into leaders for positive, sustainable change.

The downside is that students still aren’t recycling as much as they should, so we decided to take a look at their overall attitudes to see why this is the case. As it turns out, most of the barriers to recycling for students are much the same as everyone else’s. The 5 key issues inhibiting student recycling are:

If you’re looking to divert items away from the landfill while helping the student population get rid of unwanted items, a school-end garage sale in your municipality could be the solution! Use this guide on how to plan for a city-wide garage sale as a template for your school-end garage sale.

Once you’ve organized the basic elements of your school-end garage sale, the next step is to get the word out to as many students as possible about your event. This ensures you get a significant number of students to sign up and participate, and pushes for shoppers to show up to the sale and buy.

How to market your city-wide garage sale:

Running a municipal recycling awareness program is always a challenge.  Residents are increasingly difficult to reach due to busy schedules, and accessibility is reduced thanks to the wide range of communication channels they use. Meanwhile, your landfill is beyond capacity and special waste collection events are under-attended. 

Perhaps it’s time to focus some attention on the colleges and universities in your area and engage college students in municipal recycling programs.