It started as a simple question from a Scouting America council staffer back in 2022. It has evolved into an ongoing service project that’s transforming the way a community disposes of waste.
“We’re teaching Scouts about sustainability, but what are we doing as an office ourselves?” asked Tiffany Cook, a registration assistant at the Cherokee Area Council in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
“OK,” replied Scout Executive Philip Mba Wright. “What are you thinking?”
Cook had noticed how much paperwork was left over after routine staff meetings. So the council decided to go paperless, keeping agendas electronic only.
“When you start making small changes in your own life, you begin to notice areas outside of your little world where similar changes could be made,” Cook says. “My initial challenge to Philip was to print fewer copies. He challenged himself to hold paperless meetings whenever possible, and that is now our norm.”
One thing led to another, “and then it became, ‘OK, what else can we do?’” Mba Wright says.
Now the Cherokee Area Council office is one of the major recycling resources for not just for Scouts and Scouting families but also for but the entire community of Bartlesville.
“If you want to recycle, go to the Scouts”
The Cherokee Area Council Scout Shop doesn’t produce as much trash as, say, a national “big-box” retailer. But still, Mba Wright noticed they were discarding their share of cardboard boxes.
The council opened a small recycling center designed to reduce waste in their own office.
In one week, Mba Wright estimates they reduced their impact on their local landfill by 50%.
Slowly but surely, word began to spread throughout the community.
“People began to realize, if you want to recycle, go to the Scouts,” Mba Wright says. “It was just social media and friends talking to friends.”
In 2022, the council collected 1,100 pounds of recyclable materials.
By day, David Cole is a ranger at McClintock, the council’s primary camping property. When he isn’t keeping things running smoothly at Cub Scout day camp or other weekend campouts, he wears the hat of recyclable and renewable resources engineer and coordinator.
As engineer, Cole built racks to hold the council’s “super sacks” they use to collect recyclable materials. He also modified an existing enclosed trailer with a winch system to facilitate loading heavy sacks full of recyclables.
As coordinator, he works with partners in the community to coordinate the delivery of the materials they collect for recycling – mainly cardboard, aluminum and plastics.
“When we started, we may have hauled one or two super sacks a week to the local recycle center,” Cole says. “Now we collect and haul an average of 18 super sacks of cardboard and one super sack of aluminum to our partnering groups every week.”
People, profit, planet
In 2023, Mba Wright and crew got more aggressive in promoting their recycling opportunities. Among other things, he talked about the program on a local radio station, and Scouts began to leave promotional fliers on doorknobs, Scouting For Food-style.
That year, the council helped recycle 5,523 pounds of material.
In 2024, the council partnered with The Sustainability Alliance, a Tulsa-based nonprofit created to help community groups be more sustainable. Its Scor3card program is an online tool designed to assist organizations in tracking and enhancing their sustainability metrics across what they call the triple bottom line: people, profit and planet.
The council ended 2024 with 40,100 pounds of recycled material that otherwise would have gone into the community landfill, earning them a gold ranking in their first full year in the program.
Each February, the council invites units to go door to door in their communities to promote the recycling program. Cub Scouts are encouraged to complete some of the Champions of Nature requirements by recycling at the council facility.
By 2026, Mba Wright says he hopes the nonrecyclable trash collected at every council campout will be so minimal that it will fit into one trash bag.
“The community,” he says, “has really embraced our little operation.”
Photos courtesy of the Cherokee Area Council
Inspire Leadership, Foster Values: Donate to Scouting
When you give to Scouting, you are making it possible for young people to have extraordinary opportunities that will allow them to embrace their true potential and become the remarkable individuals they are destined to be.
Donate Today