Medals and Awards: Less is more. Not only are more impactful rewards going to mean more, there’s also less waste created by making so many rewards and awards for absolutely everything. If you must use paper certificates and work hard on the animation.
Austin Creative Reuse is one of the few places and ways I’m aware that you can reuse metals and trophies. They have a tub of each, though I don’t have a photo of the trophies, and these items are not usually in the best condition because people just throw them in boxes or files, and now they are thrown in a tub. So please pick recognition judiciously. Acrylic cannot be recycled so please do not make acrylic recognition statues either.
This happened to me: I was getting recognized leaving a zero waste job, they told me they wanted me as the purchaser to order myself an acrylic statue, I told them I didn’t want acrylic I would prefer a paper certificate if anything at all, and they overrode me as the award recipient, buyer, and a zero waste block leader.
That ended up in the trash can. Please this is an area that we need a lot of work on. Thank you.