As part of a statewide campaign to increase both awareness of the problem of littering and illegal dumping, and participation in recycling activities, Humboldt County, California, began a recycling and antilittering education project in 1981. Pre- and postcampaign survey data suggest that the 9-month program, relying largely on television and radio public service messages, had little effect on residents' attitudes toward waste disposal or recycling. This lack of response may be due to the project's failure to supplement its education measures with programs reinforcing recycling behavior. Also, as 74.7% of the residents already recycled material, the community may already have reached its expected level of adoption. Nonrecyclers--generally older than the average resident, inactive in community affairs, with less education but higher incomes--may have been influenced more by the inconvenience of collecting and transporting recyclable material than by the financial benefits of recycling stressed by the campaign. Though not influencing this group, the project did increase the concern of those already recycling. Moreover, as this period witnessed no drop in recycling behavior despite the community's increased unemployment, discontinued bottle and can pickups, and decrease in the price paid for aluminum cans, the campaign can be considered a limited success. (MM)