Dallas Park and Recreation employees take recycling collected for the Buddy Bench Contest to the materials recovery facility. Photo credit: Frances McGee, City of Dallas
At NRPA, we believe parks and recreation is at the heart of every community. Environmental values translate into everyday practice, and local governments model responsible stewardship. Park and recreation agencies are trusted community spaces that provide the ideal venue for recycling education and for modeling responsible resource stewardship.
Celebrate Earth Month With NRPA's Recycling Race
Celebrate Earth Month by turning recycling into a friendly competition! NRPA’s Recycling Race invites park and recreation agencies and like-minded organizations to track their impact, engage their communities and see how they stack up nationwide. The competition runs every year from April 1 to April 30. You are welcome to register to compete at any time.
How to Participate
- Step 1: Register
Agencies can join NRPA’s Recycling Race by signing up here. After you register, you’ll receive an email with a set of instructions for tracking and reporting your trash and recycling collection.
- Step 2: Plan Your Cleanup
You can participate in NRPA's Recycling Race by reporting the total amount of recycling and/or trash collected through events hosted in parks. You can report this in bags or pounds. Please submit your information once per event you host.
- Step 3: Engage With Your Community
We have created the Show Your Park Some Love Toolkit to help you build community pride through increased recycling awareness. The toolkit includes information to help you get started with recycling education, activation ideas and messaging that will support talking about recycling in your community.
Awards and Recognition
Submit your trash and recycling amounts at the link here to have a chance to win! At the end of April, the top three agencies will receive digital frames recognizing their achievements as a Recycling Ranger. Frames will be sized to fit around LinkedIn profile photos, making it easy to share and celebrate your success with your community.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
- Can I participate in the competition if I do not belong to a park and recreation agency?
Yes, like-minded organizations are encouraged to participate! We welcome “Friends of” park groups, Keep America Beautiful chapters, zoos and more.
- If a partner organization is hosting a cleanup in my park, does their trash and recycling cleanup count towards my park and recreation agency total?
Yes, every piece of trash and recycling collected by park enthusiasts in your parks counts toward your total. Just remember to count the bags or calculate total pounds and snap a picture to upload with the total.
- Do I need to fill out the survey every time I have a cleanup event?
Yes, we encourage you to fill out the form and report your trash/recycling collected per event. We will calculate your totals for you! Please do not wait until the end of the month to submit all your cleanup metrics at once.
Have Questions?
For more information or questions, please contact NRPA’s Environmental Resilience Team at resilience@nrpa.org.
