Mechanisms to Promote Newspaper Recycling

• Educating school children about waste management can promote newspaper recycling Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images

  If we recycled all our newsprint, about 250,000,000 trees could be saved every year, according to the Student Environment Advisory Council at North Dakota State University. Newspaper recycling also is another way to re-use old materials that may be piling away in a landfill. According to the Newspaper Association of America, making products such as cereal boxes and egg cartons from newspapers is more cost-effective than shipping old newspapers for recycling into new newspapers.

Educating School Children

• Placing recycling bins in schools encourages the importance of recycling among children. Effective school recycling programs can have positive repercussions on society by decreasing solid waste disposal costs and producing environmentally-conscious children. Many environmental groups work with schools to maintain recycling programs.

Offering Financial Incentives

• Many states, individuals and corporations are eligible for state recycling tax incentives. For example, in Arizona, individuals and corporations that install recycling equipment receive tax credits equalling 10 percent of the installed cost of the recycling equipment.

Raising Community Awareness

• Operating a successful community recycling program begins with public education and publicity. Explain the program requirements and garner their support, but also tackle the why, what, how, where and when of the program. A range of publicity tools can be used to gain public support, ranging from a letter from the mayor to residents and businesses to outreach programs at public events to presentations at fairs and community events.

Advertising

• Devoting advertising space in newspapers to explaining recycling programs promotes newspaper recycling while educating the public about the importance of recycling. For example, the Canadian newspaper industry donates approximately $200,000 of advertising space annually to help the Resource Recovery Fund Board Inc., a non-profit environmental corporation, and municipalities to educate the public about the importance of recycling. Many newspapers worldwide follow similar practices.