Ready, aim, fire! But which items should go into the recycle bin?

By Hannah Jolliffe

It's an unusual scenario to see young children being encouraged to chuck their rubbish around, but that's exactly what I'm watching. A young lad dives into a large sack of rubbish and then tosses it at a big orange bin. In go the tin, the newspaper and the plastic bottle, but he knows not to let go of the plastic food tray. The point of the exercise: to decide which items are recyclable.

A little bit of give and take

I'm at a Give and Take day - a community event in South London to encourage people to bring in clothes, toys and household goods they no longer use and take away something that takes their fancy. "The idea of Give and Take day is that one man's rubbish is another man's treasure," explains Alys Dunn, the Community Outreach Officer for Waste Watch, the organisation that runs the event. "We can see it's useful as people are filling up their bags!"

There are lots of Waste Watch crew members buzzing around in bright green T-shirts welcoming visitors, manning the stalls, helping with arts and crafts sessions and generally educating them through games and displays. Today, four of the crew are volunteers. "It helps massively to have volunteers at events like this," says Alys. "We never know how busy it will be so we need to have a certain number of people to run each event. We just don't have the staff, resources or time to do that without volunteers."

Inspiring volunteers to get involved

There's such a friendly vibe in here, it seems that everyone – whether visiting, paid or voluntary – is pleased they came. "It's a really nice team of people to be working with," enthuses one of the volunteers, Helen Bernhardt, who is meeting and greeting people as they arrive, accepting goods for the stalls and collecting data about who's attending. "I like this role as I'm working in my own community. I live in the borough of Wandsworth and it's good to be involved in something that brings the community together like this."

Over at the stalls, another volunteer, Irene Gomez, agrees. "Some of these families have been here for over an hour doing arts and crafts and playing games. It's an easy way for the children to learn without even realising it. I really think that educating people about recycling is little by little, step by step."

Learning as you volunteer

Helen and Irene are evidently enthusiastic about the issues of recycling and reusing. They both got involved in Waste Watch's Recycle Western Riverside scheme because they wanted to do something useful with their time while they're not working. Although they were previously keen recyclers they both emphasise how volunteering their time in this way has made them more informed about the issues.

For Agnes Abdalla, another volunteer at the event, there's more of a strategy involved. After studying Environmental Control at university she fell into a career in IT, but now she's keen to get back into an environmental role. "I thought the best way to change careers would be to do some volunteering. I'd like to work in a role that helps the environment on an international level – I'm hoping that this experience will stand me in good stead," she says. Even if it doesn't lead to paid work, Agnes is ready to reel off plenty of other benefits for being involved. "I'm getting out of the house and interacting, it's really good fun with a nice group of people, and I've learned a lot too."

Plans for the future

The Recycle Western Riverside scheme is a five-year initiative that operates within the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth, Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea. Spreading the word is another area where volunteer involvement is crucial. "The main reason we involve volunteers is because we want to get the message out further than those five years," explains Alys. "By passing our message on to volunteers, hopefully they will carry on the work. That way it will continue whether we're here to facilitate it or not."

They are already involving volunteers beyond these events. Helen has been working hard in the office to make connections with colleges and universities in the area. "Recycle Western Riverside wants to target 16-24 year-olds as they're a group that aren't recycling so much," she says. "I've been finding out what communication channels local colleges and universities have with their students to identify how we can work together to promote recycling. The response so far looks good and the campaign is due to start later this year."

Search the do-it database for volunteering opportunities like this, and for other opportunities helping the environment.

quick search