Forum dedicated to increasing awareness of green living through beneficial dialogue.

After visiting a different city, I was thrown into shock by how little my own city does by way of recycling, picking up litter (or just throwing it away in the first place), using cloth bags, etc. Any tips about how to promote interest in it?

Perhaps contact your local municipal authority and ask them what their policies are on recycling. It could be that there are initiatives going on behind the scenes that you weren't aware of.

My local council provide special free recycling bins for anyone who asks, which are different colours, so you can sort your rubbish into paper/plastics/glass/tins etc and it is collected by specialist units..

Kitten,

Like any good movement it starts with one person. My suggestion to you is to start by teaching a friend or neighbor, get them to teach another person and so on. Write letters to you town council, mayor, and other people who have the power to create new laws or to implement those ideas that would be benificial to your community. Walk your neighborhood and find areas that you can improve yourself. It will take time and you will encounter many many pitfalls but with a little bit of gumption you will see results.

Good luck

An incentive to recycle, for those who need it, may be found in selling recycled cans or paper. That's something that community groups could do to raise money and awareness.

Ours is a small community, around 8k people, and we've found that working with the kids in town goes a long way. They have energy, enthusiasm and idealism and both the church youth groups and the local boys and girls club have yielded excellent results that eventually filter up to the parents.

That sounds good, heretoday. I think smaller areas may be ahead in some ways like that, but I guess there are pockets of community in larger cities too.

In our city, there's a current garbage strike and some people are volunteering to help clean up, which is good.

I agree with the idea that it takes one person to unite the interest of others. All quakes begin with a single tremor. That's what we all are, little tremors waiting to erupt and change the world.

I like the idea of influencing one person at a time and letting the ripples radiate out. If you can get schoos and youth groups involved the young people will influence their families.

Here's something not so good for the movement. I heard this week that part of the recycling program is having to be cut because of monetary issues. They are having to cut corners everywhere, and the latest program to take a hit is recycling pickups.

Start a 'Wellionaire Group' in your community - committed to living green - eating green - and using green natural child and pet safe cleaning and pest control products!