Who started the recycling movement?

Answer 1

I did here is a quick story I put on my blog. Recycling wasn't unheard of before you all got the nice little green or blue tubs to put out next to you trash bucket. This is the story about how I thought up, petitioned and played hard ball with the United States Government, to get them to implement the recycling program that you see today. It all started back in middle school over 15yrs ago. I was in my social studies class and Mr. Cahill was my teacher. A great teacher that was always helpful no matter what the question or problem. He had decided to give homework were we had to come up with something for Earth Day. Everyone had to go home think up something that the class could do together and give a report on how and why we should do it. We would be graded on the presentation, idea and the overall ability to do it. I was sitting at home trying to think up something. I knew it had to be something that the kids in the class would not hate me for ever for if my idea got picked and they all had to go do it. So spending the weekend even on a beach picking up trash was not going to do it. Neither would most of my other ideas, they were either to hard to do or were just to annoying for anyone to have to go and do. I was wearing this earth day shirt that my parents got me and remember thinking, "What would the animals on my shirt want"? I was thinking less trash there but how could I come up with a idea that would pick the trash up with out having all my classmates pick it up then kick my butt later for having to do it. Then I was thinking if we could just get everyone to pick up their own trash. A petition was the answer, the only thing the kids in my class had to do was stand around on a street and get people to sign it or bring it home and have his family sign it. We had done one before, Mr. Cahill had written it up and had us try to get people to sign it and no one seemed to mind that too much. So once I had the idea to get a petition set up the ideas started to come. I thought up a bunch of different ones but the best one was to get the state to get a recycling program started. I needed ideas and had to make drawings to present to the class. So I drew up some trucks that could be used to collect the trash. They had different compartments so each plastic, paper, metal, and glass could each have their own bin. I thought we could use the same supplier that gave out the post office bins and get everyone one of them. Well that is if they did not have one all ready. Just stamp a recycling stamp on the side and let people put them out on the street. I had ways to go about the petition, slogans and everything. Now all I had to do was convince the class to do the project. Now don't go thinking that it was a slam dunk in class. I was going up against fun things to do, like a play, music, bake sales, and other things that seemed really easy to do. I did get a lot of support in the class, and some people that even had a lot of votes for their idea even said they would drop their idea to do mine because they thought it could work. When the vote came in it was close. I ended up winning the vote, Mr. Cahill wrote up a petition that took up about a quarter of a page of paper and handed one out to everyone in the class. We knew we needed a ton of people to sign it or else they would not even listen to us when we went into Boston. So we first tried to get the whole school involved and passed out one to everyone in the school. That took some convincing of the staff to allow us to use the copier and all; it was a lot of paper and ink. They were giving us a hard time saying well what if no one wants one, what if they don't take it home and have anyone sign it, look at all the paper you will be using. Blah blah blah! You know how it goes when they're right and you are wrong, and you can't do something because they can't. Well, some how we ended up getting our own paper, and managed to get them to allow us to use their ink after a big fuss. A lot of the kids in the school helped out and were willing to get their parents to sign and bring it back. Some of them thought they had to fill up the whole page as part of their homework which we liked even more. That got us started. My class had the burden of getting the bulk of them done. Also because it was my idea I really wanted to see it through and get as many people as I could to sign. I had done the MS readathon and collected over one thousand dollars; which was a school high for one person. So I knew how to find people and where to stand and ask people to donate to a good cause. Like in front of the banks on Thursday and Friday or at the local coffee shop when people were trying to decide if they could spare a the cost of a cup of coffee to help someone that needs it. Well this time all I was asking was for them to sign a paper that said they agreed with the idea. Now come on how, many of you could say no to a young middle school kid, when he asks you if you would please help make the world a better place for him and his kids to grow up in by simply signing a petition. Also, you did not have to do anything if you did not want and would get a free storage tub out of it. Well you would think none of you would but plenty of you did. Weird, right? I went everywhere to get people to help with the petition. I put them up in the local businesses and supermarkets. They would turn them in when ever they got a full one to Mr. Cahill's class. I walked my entire neighborhood and got tons of people to sign, till I was over lapping where someone else went. We used to weekend up in NH so I asked my teacher if it mattered where the petitions were signed and he said no because we where going for a statewide recycling program. So I did up the area that I was staying in on the weekends too. I gave the local stores the petition and the schools mailing address. A lot of people up there ended up signing and helping by getting their schools involved, too. I also would go to the local malls and try to get shoppers and people that worked there to sign. That caused some problems with one store. Some guy said I had no right to be bothering his customers and that I should not even be in the mall. He had security escort me out. My mom was waiting out side reading a book in the car and when she asked why I left the mall so soon, he soon found out what a big mistake it was to kick me out of the mall. My mother, in what would normally be an embarrassing situation for me, went in and gave that guy such a verbal beating I almost felt bad for him. Then it was on to the security desk to talk to the guys that kicked me out. They did not get to read the petition and even decided to sign it. But that guy in the store never did and tried to stick to his guns. It was decided that I was not breaking any rules as long as I did not approach anyone that was busy shopping in some store, and that I could approach people as they walked around or ate in the mall. I got thousands of people in the local malls to sign and between my own town and the one I went to on the weekends I got thousands more. I turned in stacks and stacks of papers fully signed. I had people calling my house to find out about the petition and where could they go to sign it. I felt like we had enough petitions filled that it would be a slam dunk when we went it to Boston to pass them. Wow was I wrong; that was only the start of the battle. Getting people to sign was easy compared to getting the local government people to sign off on the idea. Well, the day came to bring in the petitions, Mr. Cahill had set up to meet and talk to the state rep. I thought when we went in there and put all those petitions on his desk that he would have to listen. But he came back with all the reasons why not. Like how much money it would cost to get a new trash truck across state. At over 100 towns and the cost of each truck being about 30,000 or more that they would have to shell out 3,000,000 that they did not have. Also that how much all the bins would cost about over a million. Also the cost of sending letters to everyone about the recycling program, with info about when they could put out their recycling. Then how much it would cost to get people to work the job as a state job with medical and dental. He really did put up a good fight, our teacher told us not to get our hopes up that we at least would put it out there for everyone to see. Well we did not just leave after they threw all that at us. I came back at him with well the plastic bottle alone would cover the needs of the bins. Also we could find a company that would make them as a donation of time for a tax cut. He said no way would anyone do that we replied that we all ready had been talking to people with ideas of how to get the items made with a one press system that would keep the cost of doing it down. The one press system was so a machine would just use one form to make the bin and just have to hit a piece of plastic one time and trim the edges to be done. Then he said well what about the trucks. We came back with if you gave the tons of metal that would be collected to a dump truck company were they could make 3 trucks out of the new material for one new one then what was the problem with that. He said they would never go for that but we said we already talked to them too. Then the problem with getting people to do the job was another thing. He kept saying he was not going to take people off other pickup trucks to go all over town looking for people that even did put out a little bit of recycling. Also how where we going to get the new trucks if he was not going to supply the trucks in the first place to get the materials to trade for more new ones. We said well if you really think that no one will recycle then just use plain pickup trucks to pick up everything. Then he changed over to well what if there is a ton of stuff to pick up, what would that guy do keep going back and forth using gas which is not cheap. Ha! I just got gas for 3.45/gal what was he talking about. Also he was not willing to supply the new trucks for the program. We said we could find some one to donate them and would that work. Starting to sway him a little he asked well who is going to pick up all the recycling. It was myself, Mr. Cahill, and some of the other students that had gotten the most people to sign the petition there and we started to even offer up our parents. I guess we were getting kind of desperate now. He said what and are they going to do the whole state. We turned it around saying well how about just a few towns to prove that it will work and that the program will collect enough stuff to support itself. He said well ok if you can get the trucks and people that will work for minimum wage he would allow like 4 or 5 towns to be starter towns to see if it would really work. We called our parents right there and asked them. Some of them said they would help out on the side but would not do it every time. So we needed people to do it. Did you know that the answer was right across the street in the park? I came up with the idea that this was such a good cause that we could go pick up homeless people across the street to do it. That if he would help them get into assisted living in the town they worked in and let them keep all bottles and cans that had a 5 cent deposit on them. That we think we could convince at least 5 people to join up and get out of the park. He said ok anything to get this meeting over with if you can get 5 trucks and people to drive that he would send out the letters by hand if needed to start the program in only 5 towns. Also if it proved to work in those towns that he would see about the cost and the profit to see if it could be done in across the state. If it worked in the state that he would then propose it to the rest of the states then next time he was in Washington. Well here we go we told him we would be back with the people later that day and to keep an eye out for us. Also during that time in his office some how we asked him if he had kids and how would they feel if their dad did not want to recycle and make the world a better place for them to grow up in. He responded that he did have kids and not to get them involved so he would not have to hear it every morning before he went off to work. Well we kept our word about not telling them but we did not agree not to find out what school they went to and tell everyone else there. Also he did say that the mayor did have kids and go ahead and tell them because the mayor would end up having to ok everything. Well what do you think we did? Ok first Mr. Cahill made some phone calls about the trucks while we were still in Boston. Some how he knew someone or had talked to someone before, when we were looking up the dump trucks and he managed to get someone to say that they would donate the trucks. They were not going to be the best trucks in the world but would work. Well then we went across the street with Mr. Cahill and started to talk to every homeless person we could find. We told them the deal with the place to live, the paycheck, and that they could keep every can or bottle that was put out to collect even more money. Also whoever worked our town we would slip in some full beers and cookies every once and a while. Well we got like 6 or 7 people that were willing to take the offer. We walked right back into the reps office with them and what a strange bunch we must have looked like. Well what would you think if you saw a group of kids with their teacher and a bunch of homeless guys from across the street walk into your office? Security even tried to stop us but Mr. Cahill fixed that. The look on the reps face was priceless. It was a cross between oh crap and what the hell is that. He gave in and the program was started. I was getting updates all the time about how everything was going every time they added a new town to the program. Also when one town started other towns were like wtf why aren't we doing that. So the towns that paid for their trash pickup by putting stickers on there bags saw it as a way to get rid of even more trash and not pay for it. They were so helpful in getting the program to their town. It went rather fast with all things considered right across the state. Because I had petition NH too they were wondering when they were going to get their recycling program too. The rep for our state was ready to give the program to the rest of the states and see if they would agree in proposing it to the president, to cross the country with the recycling program. It was bringing enough materials that they could see giving out the bins, trucks and paperwork that was needed. The rep invited Mr. Cahill, a couple of the other students that collected the most full petitions, and I to go to Washington to help talk about the program. Also it was our idea and he thought we would like to see the vote take place. Well when we got there we meet everyone, I remember Mr. Cahill saying that I did not even know the importance of the people that I was getting to shake hands with, and what a thrill it was to meet them. I think he enjoyed it more then we did. All us kids saw was a room of guys in suits that we had to be quiet and not run around in. Just kidding. But really I remember a group of the different state reps coming up to me and asking why I thought they should vote to do the recycling program. Some were in the conversation I said something like well do you want to be that guy that voted no on recycling, and that the next person that was going to try to get voted into your job will use the slogan. I would have voted yes. Well they put me in that seat when the vote went through and only had one line that I had to say to the whole room. Well I was nervous and messed it up. But it did not matter; it was a land slide vote after they all reviewed the info from how well it worked in MA. Well to all you people out there that signed thanks a lot hope you like your new storage bin or are recycling. Also I think this story goes to show you that you really can do anything even if a lot of people say you can't. So go for it.

Answer 2

Everyone did, starting from the very early ages, they would reuse things for various things. eg. aluminum for jewelry.