Ecology Action warmed up people to recycling through a plea for environmentalism. The flyer suggests there is an awareness that human practices are destructive to the earth and in turn, ourselves. It argues that we need to rethink what waste means because not all the things we throw away are garbage and rethink what kinds of packaging will lead to further waste.

The word “RECYCLE” is above an image of a bicycle, pairing the two as part of a larger project for ecology.

The flyer also announces the larger political strategy behind getting people in Berkeley to recycle: “Our environment can be rescued if a city-wide waste-recycling program is established in Berkeley. To help generate such a program, a recycling center has been set up behind the Co-op Garage on University Avenue near Sacramento Street. If the Co-Op Recycling Center is inundated by enthusiastic citizens, recycling depots will be set up in other parts of Berkeley.”

This flyer is typical of Ecology Action, in that they often framed the severity of the environmental crisis, then offered “effective alternatives” to take action.

Their efforts at education about recycling through flyers like the one above are fantastic. One wonders: who were the first people to catch on to recycling because of Ecology Action? Who was the audience for these leaflets? Where were they distributed? Was this just within the Berkeley counterculture? How did the public library get them?