A six-step guide to becoming a top collector: Part 1

Are you struggling to increase your collections or wondering if becoming a public drop-off location is for you? Don’t worry, we’re here to help. Follow these steps and you’ll be running a top collection in no time!

1. Easy access
The first step towards success is to place your collection box easily accessible for other people. Maybe you have an open garage? If your house is on the outskirts of your local town, maybe you can coordinate with a local library, school, or community center and ask if they can host the collection box for you. Make sure they know that you’ll be running the collection point, and that they will hopefully lend you the space for people to access the collection box.

2. Make sure your information is up to date
If our programmes accept local collection points they will almost certainly also feature a map of where people can find the nearest drop-off location. Make sure your address is correctly placed on the map and that the opening hours are accurate. Also consider wether your opening hours are suited for the type of people who collect for you. If they have long working hours maybe your collection point should be accessible during the weekends. Especially if your collection point is not on their daily route, for example as they drop their children off at school or kindergarten

3. Prepare your argument
Before going into the final steps of our six-step plan it is important to have your arguments ready. Not all people understand the necessity of recycling. You need to make sure that you can explain why your work is important and why people should drop their waste at your location point. Think about it as an elevator pitch where you explain who you are, why you are collecting, and how collections work. That should increase your chances for success.
Good arguments could be: 1) For every piece of waste we recycle, we earn a donation for a local charity, 2) when you collect with us, we encourage people to visit your local business, or 3) it’s completely free.

These steps are simply for inspiration. In the end you know your community the best and you know what would work well. The important thing is to engage your local community in order to increase collections, recycle more, and donate to your charity.

We will continue with the final three steps next week. In the meantime, make sure to prepare the above three and let us know how it goes in the comments!