By Leah Vandenberg
Campaign signs pegged into the ground on lawns and street corners are a big give away that an election is upcoming.
But what happens to the signs when the election is over? There’s so many of them and they don’t have a multi-purpose use.
“The materials for the sign are recyclable but beyond that we reuse our signs campaign after campaign,” said Green Party Candidate Treat Hull.
“We’ve made a deliberate campaign decision that we didn’t want to win the sign war,” Hull said.
Elections tend to have a lot of waste attached to them, with many parties hanging out with flyers. The Green Party is trying to minimize flyer distribution by encouraging people to visit their website. Also, voter signs are reused and made of recyclable materials.
Traditionally campaigns would print out booklets and hand a lot of stuff out. Hull said he looked at what people did when they received election mailings, observing most of them being thrown out.
“We only printed a limited number of our platforms, there are some people who still want to read and print,” Hull said.
Along with websites, The Green Party is also using social media like Twitter and Facebook to share their platforms.
“I’m kind of a social media nut,” Hull joked.
Other parties could not be reached for comment.