Education and Outreach Program at the West TN Regional Recycling Hub

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The West TN Regional Recycling Hub was started in 2010 with Chester County and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and partners with more than 14 rural counties and cities, and over 250 businesses and industries to process and increase recycling in rural areas. Chester County Solid Waste Department received more than $7 million dollars in grant funding from the TN Department of Environment and Conservation and TN Department of Transportation (TDOT) over the last 12 years. Since 2010, the Hub has formed effective partnerships working towards the common goal of increasing recycling, environmental education and outreach, and waste diversion. The Education and Outreach program was started in 2010 by the Recycling Coordinator and Solid Waste Director to educate residents about recycling and litter prevention. The Recycling Coordinator, then Amber Greene, started building an environmental educational program to teach residents and students about litter and recycling, attending festivals, educating students in school classrooms, and hosting tours of the recycling center. Since then, the education and outreach program has grown over the years.

In 2015, Chester County Solid Waste Department joined Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTNB) to become an affiliate of the organization and Keep Chester County Beautiful was created by Recycling Coordinator, Greene, because she saw the need to join KTNB’s mission of behavior change toward litter prevention in Tennessee. “Environmental education and outreach is so important in our community and surrounding communities because it helps teach future generations about the importance of the environment. Working together helps communities educate and change behavior towards litter prevention and recycling,” says Greene, who is currently the Solid Waste Director and KCCB Executive Director.

New Campaign Slogan
In 2018, the Hub launched the Volunteer to Recycle campaign to educate residents and shortly after received a TDOT beautification grant for the West Tennessee Observation and Education Classroom. Education and Outreach are the keys to lowering contamination in recycled goods coming into the Hub and helping residents understand the materials the Hub recycles. The Volunteer to Recycle campaign is shared with the Hub and the counties that partner with the Hub. Using the Volunteer to Recycle program helps each county or industry decrease contamination by educating their employees and residents. The Hub uses social media to advertise the Volunteer to Recycle Campaign to teach residents about No Waste Wednesday, Household Hazardous Waste, what is Recyclable at the Hub, Tennessee Litter Hotline, and information on tours and educational programs.

The West TN Education and Observation classroom is a one-of-a-kind facility that opened in 2019. Since then, the Hub and its partner organizations have educated more than 5,000 students and residents in West Tennessee. The Hub hosts tours of the classroom and offers 12 different hands-on STEM activity stations in the classroom including one for preschool students. The 12 stations include litter prevention, recycling, landfills, composting, and a water table, which is the newest addition to show the negative effects of how litter affects roads, crops, waterways, wildlife, and travels through creeks and lakes to the ocean to contaminate it. The Hub has over 25 environmental programs offered every year to involve the community, schools, and businesses. The Hub and KCCB also have an educational online toolkit on their website that is printable, and it follows the classroom activity stations with coloring sheets, facts of recycling, litter prevention, and crossword puzzles.

Environmental Camp and Education Programs
The West TN Regional Recycling Hub and Keep Chester County Beautiful held the first Environmental Camp at the Observation and Education classroom in July 2023. The camp was designed to teach students about the importance of recycling, litter prevention, landfills, and composting with hands on craft activities, and understand operations of a MRF. The camp was sponsored by Keep Tennessee Beautiful and was free to the community.

Mobile Classroom
The West TN Mobile Classroom trailer was designed and developed by the Recycling Coordinator in 2019. The mobile classroom was funded by a Southwest Electric grant and is a smaller replicate of the classroom. In the mobile classroom, there are six STEM stations that replicate the Observation and Education classroom stations at the Recycling Hub along with a new trailer wrap on the classroom. The goal of the mobile classroom is to take the classroom to events in Chester County and other counties to provide a much-needed resource to teach environmental education in rural West Tennessee. The mobile classroom was finished in 2019 and teaches students about litter, recycling, landfills, and has hands-on activity stations like the recycled magnet game, recycled metal picture sculpture, and landfill model. The Recycling Hub and Keep Chester County Beautiful attended touch a truck day with the mobile classroom in July in partnership with the Chester County Library to give out more than 300 car litter bags and teach residents and students about the environment. In March, the Hub partnered with Robin Chance, Recycling Coordinator for the City of Jackson, Tom Brandon from WM, and Jackson Christian School to educate students on career day. “Partnering with the Hub helps create a more cohesive and systematic education plan, which only helps every municipality in this region reinforce their investments into their own education program through a common goal. For this reason, I am a major advocate in working with other local cities and counties and urge everyone to look at these types of partnerships to maximize their resources, said Chance. The program focused on students understanding the importance of recycling, solid waste, and learning about the industry.

“Educating future generations about careers in the solid waste and recycling industry is important, because solid waste workers help provide an essential service by keeping communities clean and more sustainable, while providing individuals with meaningful employment and benefits,” says Brandon, WM’s TN Public Sector Representative.

Litter Prevention
For the last two years KCCB and the Hub have partnered with Keep TN Beautiful to host multiple events like “Can You Dig This?” The goal of the events is to teach residents and students to reuse tires and turn them into beautiful tire planters, like ladybugs, bumblebees, and frogs. A bumble bee and butterfly garden were planted to help the bees, butterflies, and the beautification efforts in the community along with the tire planters. The events have been hosted at Heritage Preschool, Chester County Library, Chester County High School Green House Class, Chester County Library, and Senior Citizens Center. KCCB received a Cigarette Litter Prevention Campaign grant that promotes cigarette litter prevention in the community. The goal of the program is to use the “Your Butt is Bigger Than You Think” slogan to make residents aware of cigarette butts and how they affect the environment when you throw the cigarette butts on the ground. A billboard is used to advertise to more than 17,000 residents the harmful effects of cigarette butts on the environment. Ash receptacles were given out to businesses and gas stations along with car litter bags in the county to decrease litter of cigarette butts.

In March, KCCB and the Hub held a Trashercise clean up event. High school students participated in the Keep Chester County Beautiful Trashercise litter event and exercised, then picked up litter off Talley Store Road and found bottles, cans, cigarette butts, plastic totes, tires, and other trash that is harmful to our environment, animals, farmers crops, and waterways. The event raised awareness about litter prevention, taught students about behavioral change, and environmental issues like how litter affects crops, waterways, causes wrecks, and affects wildlife. Keep Tennessee Beautiful sponsored the event and the Chester County Mayor’s Office, Chester County High School students, and Chester County Sheriff’s Department were partners in the Trashercise event. Chester County Mayor, Barry Hutcherson, says “Litter prevention in our county is important by keeping the roads litter free because litter effects our whole community and has a negative impact on crops, water ways, drainage ditches, roads, etc. I enjoy working alongside students to pick litter up off of roadways.”

KCCB along with the City of Henderson Police Department hosted a litter prevention tarp event in May to help reduce the amount of roadside litter and debris. The program focuses on residents and small business owners who use their personal vehicles for hauling trash. This annual event is to reduce the amount of roadside litter and debris. Convenience centers are the most littered places in most communities and by focusing on the Tarp Your Load law and giving out free tarps, this helps residents understand why there is a need to tarp loads of trash. If residents tarp their loads of trash, this protects the community from littered roadways. This event is sponsored by TDOT or KTNB yearly.

Educational Reading
KCCB, along with the Hub, has also written a book called Binny Helps the Animals to help students understand the importance of litter prevention and has given out more than 500 copies out to elementary and preschool students in Chester County and surrounding counties. Binny Helps the Animals was printed on waterproof signs and taken to the city park walking trails so residents could read the book while walking and learn about litter prevention. There are over 500 people a month who see the book while walking on the trails at the parks. The story book was also put on the courthouse lawn during Earth Day for residents to read as they entered the building. Binny the Recycling Bin also makes an appearance and takes pictures with students after the book is read to groups at schools. The goal of the book is to bring awareness to students about litter, and how litter affects animals, crops, and waterways. Tammy Marr, Education Coordinator, says, “I enjoy working with the community and students on environmental projects, and love teaching students and residents the importance of their environment.”

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com