Empowering Rural Communities Through Recycling & Sustainable Materials Management
Waste Reduction Through Sustainable Materials Management in Rural New Mexico
The establishment of reuse centers, backyard compost trainings, repair clinics and zero-waste activities all contribute to waste reduction in rural communities. The NM Recycling Coalition produced a video and materials to help communities create these types of programs through a USDA Rural Utilities grant. See details below!
Backyard Composting
Backyard compost training benefits rural communities by teaching residents how to keep their food scraps and yard debris out of the trash. NMRC will provide attendees with the tools needed to set up their own household composting systems. Rural New Mexicans will learn how to make their own valuable compost. Soils and gardens that are amended with organic compost, as created through backyard composting, do not require the application of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and use less water. Interested in learning HOW to create your own backyard compost using straw bales, a black compost bin, and red wriggler worms and teaching your friends and neighbors how to do the same? View the training video
Download a backyard compost outreach flyer HERE.
Fix It Clinics
Repair clinics, also known as “Fix-It” clinics, convey basic disassembly, troubleshooting, and repair skills using attendees’ own broken things as the vehicle. It is a free program that recruits volunteer “coaches” or individuals with experience repairing items (mechanical, electrical, bicycle, sewing, woodworking, etc.) and pairs coaches with community members who bring in their broken items. Coaches do not fix items for attendees, but work to teach them how to fix themselves. By sharing these skills while transferring them to others, Fix-It Clinics teach critical thinking through the lens of our relationship to consumption and sustainability.
Zero Waste Activities
Zero waste activities will strive to move solid waste departments and communities towards zero waste through planning, policy and community engagement. Zero Waste works to divert material from landfills and eliminate toxins. Examples of zero-waste activities could include community events in which all discards are recycled and composted, or eliminating single-use items from the community.
The Zero Waste International Alliance defines Zero Waste as follows: The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.
Learn more about zero waste in New Mexico by downloading flyers: What Is Zero Waste, and How To Promote Zero Waste.
Reuse Centers
Reuse centers are separate areas, co-located at staffed trash drop-off sites, where residents can put items they no longer want and that still have a useful life. Other residents can pick up items free of charge. Learn more about reuse centers in New Mexico HERE.