Recycling In Campgrounds

[ramblinboy]

Seems very rare to stay in a campground with recycling bins.

All the waste goes into the landfill.

Should clubs such as ours encourage owners to recycle glass, metal and paper or is that someone else's responsibility?

[tbutler]

Recycling is a noble cause and I support whenever I can. The problem for campground owners is that there is no payoff for them to recycle. Other than a little money from aluminum, most other materials are collected without reimbursement. If the local community has recycling pick-up, that takes the cost of transporting the materials to the recycling center. There is still the space, containers, and the labor to keep it clean so it doesn't become a health hazard or an eyesore.

At our winter campground we have had volunteers who carry out the recycling program. These are dedicated individuals who live here who willingly donate their time, their vehicle and their fuel to make the program work. They have to haul the materials to the cities recycling center which is about 8 miles from our park. Once there they have to unload their vehicle and physically carry the materials into the center and deposit them in the proper portal. If people don't follow recycling instructions they have to sort before depositing the materials. You get the idea. It takes time and lots of labor and fuel to make it work.

New owners a few years ago decided that they could eliminate one dumpster (of two we used to have) by providing a vehicle and the fuel for volunteers to transport materials. They also set up a nice enclosed recycling area. Materials are bagged and transported twice a week to make this work. All this to cut down on the amount of trash we throw away and their reward is a savings in their trash collection bill so they get some pay-off. We all recycle our aluminum with the program as the proceeds of the aluminum recycling are used to support the activities program at our park.

As individuals, we can at least ask at the office if they recycle any materials and if not, where we might take our recycled materials. If you make a run to the recycling center, bring back some brochures that describe the materials collected and the hours of operation an usually include a map or directions to the center. Ask the campground owners to make those available to campers who are interested in recycling their materials. If enough people ask, it may encourage them to provide some recycling as a service to campers.

Other than encouraging our members to do something like this, I can't think of a way that FMCA could do more to encourage campground owners to recycle. Perhaps the publishers of campground guides could include a recycling symbol by each campground that provides some recycling services to campers. That might provide encouragement to become part of the solution.

[ramblinboy]

Thanks for such a complete and detailed response Tom. I see lead by example in action here and it is a pleasure to hear about the commitment on the part of believers who cherish and show respect for the planet's resources. Very good advice to at least ask the operators where you can put materials for pickup and possibly start a movement and we all know seniors love movements! If we do review campgrounds, in RVPark reviews for example, we might mention the recycling efforts as a positive.

[Larry196]

We set up a program at our RV park to recycle and give it to the Boy Scouts, it became their responsibility to visit the park once a week and sort and bag the donations, they were to use the money to send a couple of kids to camp.

This lasted about two weeks, someone broke into the sheds and stole everything, which they promptly threw it all over the park. Taged the sheds and half the buildings.

The scouts spent an entire weekend trying to help get it back together, two weeks later whoever they were, burned the sheds to the ground.

Everything goes to the landfill now, mind there are only 524 people in the town.

[CherrilynnGilli]

I think we must start recycling from our own house.I think most of us have the habit to throw stuff in trash after its use without even thinking if it can be recycled.We must start recycling stuff from our home itself before throwing it.Now-a-days plastics are recycled to prepare fence,bench,post,sleeper etc.