Last summer, a volunteer-driven effort to increase recycling and reduce waste in the city began with the formation of the Buffalo Recycling Alliance. The initiative was launched by a collaborative of local organizations, including the Partnership for the Public Good, Buffalo First!, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Olmsted Center for Sight, Sierra Club Niagara Group and Ujima Theatre. Since that time, they’ve been actively working to increase city residents’ awareness and improve recycling rates at businesses, multi-family residences, schools, and events.
“The goal was basically to get people to start recycling—schools, businesses, events, other organizations, any place that has the capacity to recycle—we’re there to educate them, provide them with useful resources to get started, and tell them what can be done,” said Kyla Jaquish, B.R.A. program director.
One of the means for the B.R.A. to raise awareness is its Recycling Rangers program, where volunteers are recruited to attend special events in the city, establish themselves by the waste stations, and educate the public about which items can and cannot be recycled or composted. The organization was present at several events this year, beginning with the BALLE Conference and continuing with Taste of Buffalo, the Elmwood Arts Festival, and the Music is Art Festival most recently.
The group is also actively working to get the city’s recycling ordinance updated. “Currently, the ordinance doesn’t include single-family houses—it says businesses and multi-family houses have to recycle,” Jaquish said. “The law doesn’t have to change, it’s just the wording. It’s really a state law that everyone should be recycling, but because that’s not made clear in the ordinance, it’s not really enforced. One of the proposed waste groups planks in the WNY Environmental Alliance’s 2014 agenda is to modify the ordinance, reword it, and create some publicity around it.”
According to Jaquish, there’s still plenty of room for Buffalo’s recycling rates to improve. “The rates were eight or 12 percent compared to national average before we got bigger totes. Now we’re at 16 to 20 percent,” she said. “We’ve pretty much doubled the rate with the bigger totes, but there’s still a lot that needs to be done.”
A big area of focus for the B.R.A.’s efforts has been educating the city’s youth. In April, they hosted a Recycle Fest at the Community Charter School for Global Youth Service Day. “We had 50 students go out into the community and teach the community about recycling,” Jaquish said. “Then we brought them all back to school where we had free food and tables for different organizations with info, games, prizes, etc.”
They will continue raising awareness with the younger generations by organizing a Recycle-Bowl (www.recycle-bowl.org) competition locally. This nation-wide competition challenges schools to see who can recycle the most materials, thereby increasing recycling rates in schools and providing opportunities for schools to create new programs.
The B.R.A. meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at the Partnership for the Public Good headquarters (237 Main St. Suite 1200), for those who are interested in volunteering or learning more about their efforts. Those interested in volunteering for Recycling Rangers can contact Kyla Jaquish at 852-4191 ext. 115 or kyla@ppgbuffalo.org. For more info, visit the B.R.A. website or Facebook page.