Community-Based Approaches to Waste Reduction and Energy Recovery

For years, individual environmental responsibility has focused on what people can do at home. This included the zero-waste movement and buying only cruelty-free products. However, the tone is shifting to more community-based efforts because of their lasting impacts.

These are some of the most meaningful ways to connect with neighborhoods to harness power and decrease trash generation.

Community Composting Programs

Many households have access to city-sponsored recycling bins. Fewer places have similar outlets for compost. Communities can still repurpose their food scraps, and tackling as much as possible may require a few separate initiatives. This could include:

• Contacting local representatives en masse to voice the desire for municipal composting
• Hosting awareness campaigns at third spaces like libraries and community centers
• Encouraging neighbors to bring food scraps to local farmers markets
• Creating a drop-off site sponsored by an educational system or nonprofit

The Environmental Protection Agency reports food waste is the most prominent material in landfills. It accounts for 24% of solid waste, making composting one of the most accessible and gratifying ways to hit waste reduction goals. It also saves water for local agriculture. The compost puts nutrients back into the soil, making it able to hold onto moisture better.

Repair Cafés

Repair cafés are a recent movement that encourages people to mend their items instead of throwing them away. There are community-led events where people offer their knowledge to help people fix everything from jewelry to electronic goods.

It has become common practice to toss items if they break instead of investing in their longevity. Several factors deter this. Paying for expertise is a hurdle for many, while others do not know where to find these resources. These cafés are a starting point for changing how people view their possessions, pooling intelligence in one space where services are free.

Energy and waste savings are most notable with electronics. If people repaired electronics instead of defaulting to the most recent models, they would save power. Companies use tons of resources to create new technologies. Demand goes down if customers actively dismiss them to keep old versions alive.

Food Recovery Programs

Instead of trusting soup kitchens and food banks to take care of everything, communities can work to develop more imaginative programs throughout the area.

For example, stakeholders could ask restaurants to redirect surplus at the end of the day to neighbors. Local businesses could find ways to get these meals to those who need them.

A student from Penn State exemplified how these networks help communities. Unserved meals at University Park dining halls went to shelters and other places in need. This saved around 6,700 meals and 23,000 pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Community Swap Events

Citizens can gather to swap items similar to the repair events. Consider an event like a flea market but everything is acquired through trades and gifts. Hyperconsumerism causes an influx of objects to go to landfills.

Sometimes, all people need to curb the craving to shop is for something new to enter their home — even if it was pre-loved. This could be in the town’s plaza or in a cul-de-sac. People could feel motivated to swap or borrow everything from books to tabletop kitchen devices.

Neighborhood Recycling Education

Many counties have recycling facilities, but how many people know how to recycle correctly? As a community, communicate with local recyclers to find the most common oversights and mistakes households make. Then, take this information and teach it to people in the city.

It will make recycling plants more consistent and waste fewer funds dealing with items they cannot process. Band together to request insights from workers from the local facilities to ensure information is accurate when spread to the masses.

Energy Recovery from Waste

Waste-to-energy plants can create around 550 kilowatt hours per ton of waste in energy. They are not established in every state in the U.S., but communities can work to create their own anaerobic digestion or incineration systems to produce renewable energy. Organic waste makes biogas, which is useful for heating and electricity.

The U.S. Department of Energy realized how much waste-to-energy can help communities on a smaller scale. It allocated $6.9 million to transform transportation with repurposed waste. Though this is federally funded, communities can still set up these operations on a small scale, especially if they already using a method for composting.

Urban Gardening and Food Forests

Community gardens are one of the best resources for making a town more eco-friendly. It reduces waste in countless ways, including but not limited to:

• Minimizing the need for transporting food long distances
• Packaging fewer foods in nonrecyclable materials
• Eliminating pesticides from agriculture
• Lowering food spoilage with extensive collaborative attention

Green areas also boost energy conservation by regulating temperatures in communities. It reduces the urban heat island effect because plants harness the sun’s rays and give extra shade. This allows households to expend less energy to cool down their homes in warmer months.

Educational Workshops and Campaigns

Community members can also contact businesses and representatives in their area. This will let them know how much their constituents care about environmental subjects like waste reduction and energy management.

This may encourage more companies and local spaces to host awareness campaigns and support educational opportunities for people to expand their literacy on environmental issues.

The more people vocalize, the more likely it is that a community will adopt more comprehensive environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. Around 70% of expert investors expect ESG to become the standard before 2025, but it relies on communities continuing to speak their concerns.

Incentivized Waste and Energy Reduction Programs

People are more likely to stay committed to a project with a reward. Citizens should talk to businesses, schools and more to offer benefits and discounts for people who do waste- and energy-reducing activities, such as:

• Bringing reusable containers to coffee shops and restaurants
• Recycling and composting more often
• Picking up litter
• Contributing renewable energy to local microgrid

One example of this is the GREEN@COMMUNITY project in Hong Kong. It’s a community recycling network that establishes recycling centers and stations across the city and incentivizes community members to use them through the GREEN$ Mobile App or GREEN$ smart card, which lets the public earn GREEN$ whenever they use one of the smart recycling devices. They can then trade the GREEN$ in for gifts like groceries and eco-friendly products.

Collaboration is Key

When people pool their desire for a more sustainable world, they can cause permanent positive change. While everyone can do these things alone or with family members, it makes a greater difference when communities reach out to one another.

As the world becomes more closed off and isolated, it is essential to remember how much strength there is in numbers. It is the best way to combat climate change.