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People make a lot of assumptions about today's youth--college and university students in particular. "Millennials are lazy, entitled and self-absorbed," an early Time Magazine article screamed. But the truth is far more complex, and the current college crowd continues to defy the stereotypes.

So, how do college students really feel about recycling?

The good news is that today's young people have grown up with a sense of global awareness about sustainability and the importance of green living. There are also aspects of their collective behaviors that, properly directed, can turn them into leaders for positive, sustainable change. The downside is that students still aren't recycling as much as they should, so we decided to take a look at their overall attitudes to see why this is the case. As it turns out, most of the barriers to recycling for students are much the same as everyone else's. The five key issues inhibiting student recycling are:

1. Education

‍There is both good and bad news regarding current students' awareness of sustainability and environmental concerns. A 2015 study for the Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research discovered that 86.4% of students surveyed had heard of sustainability, though only 35% felt they knew what it really meant. Only about 18% of the survey group felt they had a strong understanding of the concept. The study concluded that while media is bombarding today's students with information about environmental concerns, awareness remains superficial. In other words, they know there's a problem, but they aren't really clear what to do about it.

On the other hand, a 2014 study from the University of Iowa determined that 51% of students in their dataset recycle as much as possible, while only 9% said they don't recycle at all. Among the latter set, the two main reasons cited for not recycling were lack of available space and no available information on how and where to recycle. Taken in tandem, these studies suggest that while awareness and the desire to recycle exist, students need an actionable plan and facilities to help them see programs through. (For similar studies, see also: NIH, U.Guelph.)

2. Inconvenience

‍Like many of us, students won't recycle if they can't find an available recycling bin, if the ones provided are full, or if they lack instructional signage. A 2009 study from the National Institutes of Health found that a lack of available facilities was the number one reason students gave for not recycling regularly, and the same reason ranked number one or two in all of the studies we looked at.

3. Lack of information

‍The other top barrier to campus recycling is a lack of reliable, easily accessible information to tell them what goes where. For students, a lack of instruction affects their daily recycling behavior throughout the school year, but it is a particular concern when they are moving in and moving out. Even students with a strong education in recycling best practices might be at a loss when it comes to disposing of furniture shipping containers when they move in or offloading used mattresses and furniture at the end of the year.

4. Time

‍Students have their work cut out for them. Between juggling school work, social lives, and possibly a job or two, there's simply not enough time in the day to give their recycling behaviors critical thought.

5. Priorities

‍Students entering a college or university environment are often overwhelmed by change and unstructured independence, and the idea of recycling can take a backseat. As they mature as students, they might find themselves under increasing pressure to perform well in class or bowing to social pressures to party, which pushes recycling even further down the priority list.

Dealing with distractions

The one key differentiator between today's incoming college students and older generations is digital noise. As social media natives, young people today consider distraction to be normal. Social media, digital apps, online games, and quizzes all offer a steady stream of personalized information and activities that students juggle alongside their schoolwork and real-world activities. They are also notorious multitaskers to a degree not experienced by their elders. When it comes to recycling, this means municipalities and schools have to work harder to cut through the noise and ensure that recycling remains front of mind.

Running a municipal recycling awareness program is always a challenge. Residents are increasingly difficult to reach due to busy schedules, and accessibility is reduced thanks to the wide range of communication channels they use. Meanwhile, your landfill is beyond capacity and special waste collection events are under-attended.

How to Engage College Students

Granted, working with college students can sound like more trouble than it's worth, but there are several reasons why you should consider developing some initiatives in that area.

First, today's college students are part of the Millennial generation, and while this group is notorious for their short attention spans, they are also famous for banding together en masse to support worthy social causes. What can be more worthy than saving our environment? Also, school administrations can be powerful allies in both the promotion and execution of college or university-based initiatives. By helping to integrate recycling systems into the school's day-to-day operations, colleges and universities can define best practices and set expectations for student compliance.Finally, today's college students will be managing households in the very near future. By setting them up to value and adopt regular recycling habits now, you will continue to see returns over time as they age and influence their spouses, children and neighbors. Some colleges are even expanding their zero waste programs off-campus and becoming thought leaders in the community at large.

Understanding the Millennial Mindset

‍In order to engage your student community, it's important to understand how they operate. One key differentiator between young Millennials and residents in older demographics is the way they utilize technology. The other is their social nature.We've all heard that young Millennials spend a lot of time on their smartphones, and the numbers drive home how pervasive this technology really is. Recent studies show that Millennials prefer texting over talking, are two times more likely to use mobile devices to access the internet for information, and 41% of them have either abandoned the landline or have never had one. Smartphones are so central to their social interactions that four out of five Millennials sleep with or next to their smartphones [Source: Forbes].

As a result, your college outreach strategy must center on mobile. For the most part, this means accessing them via social media. Text messaging is thought to be antiquated, but it is also an option. Apps are another key approach. Downloading an app requires effort (the act of clicking and installing) and desire for the service provided. This act of opting-in results in a powerful psychological connection which, in turn, typically results in high engagement rates. In 2015, college-aged students spent an average of 90.6 hours a month engaging with apps on their smartphones, plus another 34.7 hours each month on a tablet [Source: Business of Apps].

In the same way that their technology revolves around social media, Millennial college culture is also driven by group-centric activities, participation in social causes, and a need to feel like they belong. They were raised to have a can-do attitude, community spirit and believe they can make a difference. These traits make them ideal targets for recycling initiatives.We'll be looking at individual strategy and tactical ideas in later blog posts, but for now, the following checklist will help get you started:

• Use social media: Make sure your promotions have a social media component, and have resources available to respond to questions in a timely manner.
• Be authentic: Millennials do not like to be talked down to, and they are highly sensitive to inauthenticity.
• Don't Speak the Lingo: Unless you are a native Millennial marketer and understand the nuances of their slang, just keep the tone neutral and the language simple.
• Engage the group: Create promotions that encourage students to create their own groups and work together. Not only will this make your programs more effective, but they'll take initiative and build on what you've started.
• Give them the tools they need: And then get out of their way.
• Reward them for good behavior: Millennials like to know when they've done a good job. Appeal to their sense of social justice: Today's students care about the environment and each other. Show them how their activities make the world a better place, explain how to do it, and then watch them run with it.

Given their high levels of sociability, social activism, concern for the environment and accessibility through digital channels, today's college students are a great place to building a widespread recycling awareness program that will last well into their next life-cycles.Watch this space as we delve further into this topic to look at best-practices, tactics and strategies to make this energetic demographic an essential part of your municipal recycling outreach program's success.