In this series of photographs from 1970, older men work together to collect newspaper in El Cerrito or Richmond for recycling. Recycling attracted the attention of multiple generations of citizens. College students, elementary children, working adults, and seniors were all getting involved in efforts to preserve the earth and better the community.
Note the informality of this operation — using a pickup truck, “manpower,” and a small group of volunteers who share the labor.
Contra Costa Recycling, file-photographs, carton 3, Bancroft Library, Berkeley.
Ecology Action laid out the crisis to which their group was the solution
A crucial founding document of the environmental movement
Ecology Action offered a loose set of definitions of itself
The legendary folksinger had little patience for the "long-winded" style of the Declaration of Interdependence
An extensive profile of Ecology Action and its environmentalist vision, courtesy of the New York Times Magazine
Cliff Humphrey sketched Ecology Action's history for a Sierra Club activist handbook
Ecology Action's 67-page history of itself, written for the newly-created EPA
Ecology Action's operating principles, expressed in a single image
Ecology Action's parade highlighted a world of transportation alternatives
How to set up your own compost, according to Ecology Action
How to create an eco-minded hub in your community, according to Ecology Action
The rigged economy that produces "development," explained from an environmentalist perspective
Don't kill weeds, eat them: so suggested Ecology Action
Soil is a living system which is subjected to the ecological imperatives constraining all living systems
A parable about corporate America and the co-opting of the environmental movement, in coloring-book form
Ecology Action's illustrators offer an image of nature aglow
Cliff Humphrey suggested that you take your Monopoly board game and re-purpose it
A friendly guide so that the environmentally conscious could start their own recycling center
DVC students hoped, at their Ecology Fair, to stir their fellow students' consciences
With good reason, newspaper was the first to be recycled
A draft of a recycling logo, from Ecology Action
How to address the threat to the environment? Be a wise consumer and rethink waste
Announcing the beginning of a new recycling center — in Modesto
Ecology Action, "swamped" by recycling, asked the public to pressure the city for more resources
Young people learning how to sort reusable materials
A flyer from a parent-run recycling center at a school
Seniors collect newspapers by hand in pickup truck
Flyer by mystery organization to "lighten load" on other site
Though Ecology Action's founders left Berkeley, others kept recycling alive in the city
A year in, the Ecology Center struggled to keep running its newspaper recycling program
The City of Berkeley calculated that newspaper curbside pickup was a good financial investment
A historic moment: the Ecology Center organizes curbside pickup of newspapers, following the city's recommendation
A pilot program to asses recycling interest in three different Berkeley neighborhoods reveals class differences
Kathy served as its head for two decades, overseeing a huge transition
The multiplicity of organizations narrowed as recycling developed into an industry
A glance into the complexities and tone of the 80's recycling wars