Best Practices in Curbside Recycling

Communities across the country are using exciting and innovative techniques to promote their local curbside programs. Check out the best practices below and learn from your peers. Best practices are listed in these categories:

If you have a best practice to share, please email us at info@recyclecurbside.org.

State Recycling Grants (State of Pennsylvania)
Pennsylvania is one of the largest states to enforce mandatory recycling laws. In addition to Act 101 of 1988, the state government offers a variety of grants communities can apply for. These Performance Grants can provide up to 90% of recycling costs, such as education campaigns, incentives and curbside start-up costs. Many government sponsored grants are available. Following Pennsylvania, it is important to research all available funds for recycling within your state, county or community.

Curbside Bin Distribution Sponsorships (Kansas City, Missouri)
Kansas City Recycles partnered with local retailers Price Chopper and Ace Hardware as part of the launch of their recycling program in 2004. The city initiated curbside recycling and wanted to provide residents with any easy way to get a bin. They distributed coupons in English and Spanish with an offer for a free bin that could be redeemed at area Price Chopper and Ace Hardware locations. This helped defray costs of distributing bins to residents. Approximately 60% of residents receiving a coupon have redeemed it and 10% have actually paid for an additional bin.

The 24-gallon bins are branded with the businesses logos. Coupons redeemed in the stores are scanned (they contain a bar code) to enable KC Recycles staff to evaluate their success rate in various communities. Efforts have been successful. When launching the program, the city’s goal was to reduce trash by 25%. A little over a year later, they have reduced trash by 35% and boast a 54% participation rate. Visit www.kcmo.org for more information.

“ReThink Recycling”—Sponsors for Single-Stream Launch (Denver, CO)
When city officials in Denver signed off on a new city-wide single-stream recycling program, they did at a time of continued budget cuts resulting in a significant reduction to their marketing dollars. One solution they found was to build education support into their contracts with their processor and cart vendor. Another solution was to seek partners or “sponsors.”

The Denver Recycles staff developed a target list of companies and organizations who had an interest in seeing the new program succeed and how could they help. They were surprised and pleased with the response and as such now have seven proud marketing partners. They are the Aluminum Can Council, Dex Media, Coca-Cola, Recycle America Alliance, Rehrig Pacific, the Denver Newspaper Agency (Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News) and the Denver Department of Environmental Health.

License Plate Sales Help Fund Environmental Protection (New York State)
Custom license plates that show support for recycling (available for $25) are available to New York residents. A bill currently being considered would allocate the fee to the solid waste budget within the state’s environmental protection fund. For more information, please visit www.dec.state.ny.us.

Keep America Beautiful Affiliate Leads Education Campaign for County Recycling Program (Indian River County, Florida)
Keep Indian River Beautiful (KIRB) and the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District have long worked together on beautifying their community and educating residents on how they can help. As in many places, the budget is tight in Indian River County. Thus, the County has partnered with KIRB to help reach a highly influential population: students and teachers. Additionally, KIRB attends events, distributes fliers and educational magnets and serves as a spokesperson for the County’s residential recycling program.

Recently activities have kicked into high gear. KIRB representatives travel to schools often to talk with students and teachers about the benefits of recycling. They have a mascot “GARBY” that is very popular with area schools and receives many requests for in-person appearances. KIRB plans to continue to use GARBY for community gatherings, media opportunities and fun “Where is GARBY?” events. For more information, visit www.kirb.org.

Nashville Metro Beautification Creates Third Grade Curriculum for Students
(Nashville, TN)
Nashville recently stepped up their educational outreach by developing a third-grade curriculum about recycling. In partnership with Metro Beautification, a Keep America Beautiful affiliate, the city developed the curriculum to meet city teaching standards for writing, listening and speaking, math and science. The curriculum packet also includes pre- and post-activity suggestions for teachers such as a coloring book and a take-home form for parents. Students can also become “Curby Recycling Experts” by answering questions about the city’s curbside recycling program. Visit our templates section for copies of the education materials put together by the city.

Hispanic Media and Business Leaders Help Increase Awareness for Curbside Recycling (Arlington County, VA)
Arlington County’s Department of Environmental Service’s (DES) Solid Waste Bureau partnered with members of the Hispanic media and the Latino Roundtable in Arlington, VA, to reach Hispanic residents and increase their participation in curbside recycling.  

The group recently held a meeting to discuss messages that would resonate best within the Hispanic community, and to get insight into residents’ current awareness of curbside recycling. Residents reported that they relate best to messages focusing on energy savings, preserving a clean and safe environment, how to save taxpayer dollars, and how to save money for the community. Participants suggested utilizing local churches, community centers, civic organizations and local schools. To help spread the word, schools are particularly unique in that they provide a great opportunity to encourage bilingual students to pass the recycling message on to their parents who may not speak English as a first language.   

Another great way to reach residents is through the media, especially radio and TV. Specific outlets to target would include Univision, Telemundo, and Los Tiempos USA.  Participants also suggested distributing information at local fairs and festivals, particularly through live demonstrations and visual presentations showing what and how to recycle. Due to language barriers, residents said they respond better to photos than to words.  

County Partners with Dodgertown Spring Training Venue to Promote Curbside Recycling (Vero Beach, Florida)
The Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District has always been vocal about recycling, but this season the message really hit home with baseball fans attending the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spring training games last month in Vero Beach, Fla. Through a partnership with Keep Indian River Beautiful (KIRB) and the Aluminum Can Council, Holmer stadium, spring training home of the Dodgers, announced recycling messages during Dodgertown baseball games. The traditional Dodger theme of “Think Blue” took on new meaning as fans were reminded to think of their blue curbside recycling bins when discarding aluminum cans and other recyclable materials. 

“Pitch in! Do your part to keep Indian River Beautiful and recycle all of your cans at the curb!” was just one of many messages that echoed through the stadium at each game. Built in 1953, the stadium has the capacity to seat nearly 7,000 people, all of whom were exposed to recycling messages via loudspeaker and Jumbotron announcements. While baseball season is well underway, counties can take advantage of this concept at little league games, college stadiums and other sporting venues.

For example announcements, please email info@recyclecurbside.org. For more information visit www.kirb.org.

Hispanic Recycling Campaign—“Meta Un Gool Reciclando” (Charlotte, North Carolina)
In 2004, The City of Charlotte Solid Waste Services launched “Meta Un Gool Reciclando” (Score a Goal Recycling) – a three-month grassroots public relations recycling campaign aimed at increasing recycling in Charlotte’s Hispanic/Latino community (in the north zone of Charlotte), which has low recycling rates. City officials partnered with Latin American groups to gather feedback about the best ways to communicate with the Hispanic population and topics that are important to the Hispanic community, including family, healthcare, faith and religion. 

The initial pilot campaign in 2004 resulted in a 12 percent increase in recycling rates in just three months. City officials are now looking at ways to incorporate what they have learned to launch a new, city-wide campaign during the 2007 fiscal year.  The new campaign will retain the same name, but will now target the City’s entire Hispanic population.  The campaign will continue to partner with third parties and, based on the 2004 findings, will focus on recycling messaging and themes that came up as a top priority to the Hispanic community, including a clean environment, clean space for gathering and meeting, sanitation, and healthcare.  The new campaign will also address language and cultural barriers and look for ways to make it easier for residents in multi-family homes to recycle.  For more information, visit http://curbit.charmeck.org.

High-School Students Fill Need (Portsmouth, NH)
The city of Portsmouth, NH is a quaint town with a Pay-as-You-Throw (PAYT) program and a dedicated solid waste staff (though small in size). Silke Psula, the solid waste coordinator was eager to educate citizens on recycling, but did not have the time to do everything on her “good ideas list.” A creative solution was found by engaging high school students (many of whom are close to graduation and looking to find extracurricular activities to boost their resumes) to draw up educational posters. The posters will be used at a local theater to educate theater-goers on what can be recycled and what can be thrown in the trash.  

Guerilla Marketing—Lawn sign Volunteers (St Paul, Minnesota)
Lawn sign volunteers are an important part of Saint Paul's curbside recycling program. When curbside recycling first began in Saint Paul, these volunteers helped remind their neighbors to recycle by displaying a recycling lawn sign in front of their house. Today the program is thriving and over 1,600 lawn sign volunteers continue to promote recycling neighborhood by neighborhood. Here are the details:

• Lawn signs displayed a few days before a recycling pickup remind neighbors to sort and set out their recyclables.
• Lawn sign volunteers help answer neighbors' recycling questions.
• The lawn sign program lets new neighbors know that recycling and protecting the environment is important to their new neighborhood.

For more information visit www.eurekarecycling.org.  

Environmental Video Competition Launched by County (Blair County, Pennsylvania)
Encouraging students creativity, Blair County, PA is currently holding their 10th annual environmental video competition. Students are required to write, direct and star in their own production of a 30- second video clip. The only requirement is that it is the students original work, and that is coincides with the theme of the competition, “Recycle Right”. Students have full range to use their creativity and play with the different meanings of “Recycling Right”. For instance, the phrase can be used as “Recycle Right!” or “Recycle, Right” or “Recycle Right?” Various prizes will be available for students in each of the three divisions—elementary, middle and high school.

• First place $500 for their class along with bus trip to Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh
• Second place- $300 for their class
• Third place- $200 for their class

City and Environmental Group Hold Recycled Art Contest (Montgomery, Alabama)
The city of Montgomery, Alabama and the Environmental Advisory Group, a local college advisory group, recently launched a recycle sculpture contest. The contest is open to all area residents including children, adults, families and groups. All ages and skill levels were invited to participate. Requirements for the sculptures state they can be no taller or wider than 24 inches and must be made from items that can be recycled in the Montgomery curbside recycling program. What a great way to showcase recycling and involve the community! Numerous communities have embarked on similar initiatives as part of America Recycles Day and ongoing education campaigns. Some include Montgomery County, Maryland, St Louis, Missouri, Georgetown, South Carolina and Cumberland County, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.americarecyclesday.org.

A Picture Says 1,000 Words … About Recycling! (Arlington County, Virginia)
Recognizing that a picture can often communicate a message faster than words, Arlington County's Department of Environmental Service's Solid Waste Bureau did a complete rehaul of their curbside communications materials, creating a new brochure and refrigerator magnet to help educate residents about their program. Rather than rely on a lot of copy, they worked with a local designer to use images to show what types of materials can be recycled. Important information such as what can be recycled at the curb, how to order a bin and how to find out their collection day was included in both English and Spanish. Within three weeks after the brochure was mailed, the department experienced a 286 percent increase in bin requests!  

Researching the Urban Core to Find What Works (Kansas City, Missouri)
A year ago, Kansas City partnered with the CVP to educate residents and target the city’s “urban core.” After conducting research, the city determined that direct mail, media relations and grassroots efforts such as working with schools and educating city influencers (church officials, business leaders, etc.) would bring the most success. And they were right! One year later, the results are clear. Recycling volume has increased by 36 percent, saving the city over $391,000 in waste disposal fees.

Denver Creates Award-Winning PSA Urging Residents to “Rethink Recycling”
(Denver, Colorado)
A fun advertisement designed to encourage more recycling in Denver took top national honors for the City of Denver in a ceremony at Florida’s Disney World. The public service announcement (PSA) entitled “Rethink Recycling” won best overall government public service announcement.  Denver Recycles, a program of Denver Solid Waste Management, and Denver 8 TV partnered to write the script, cast the talent, and produce the PSA.  Corporate partners Coca-Cola, the Aluminum Can Council and 9News partnered to provide funding for production and airtime. 

The PSA features an animated exclamation point that morphs into a recycle symbol as the person in the scene realizes that the material they were going to throw away is recyclable.  The animated symbol gives the effect of the “light bulb turning on”.  The closing scene of the PSA features Mayor Hickenlooper having fun with recycling by making a basket from tossing his recyclable aluminum can into the recycle bin, all while offering a call to action for Denver residents to do more. The announcement was featured earlier this year on local TV stations as part of the larger Rethink Recycling campaign.

Program Uses Print PSAs to Encourage Recycling (Portland, Oregon)
The city of Portland joined a national recycling campaign designed by global business leaders Time Inc. and International Paper, along with the National Recycling Coalition. Dubbed ReMix (Recycling Magazines is Excellent), the public-private partnership was created to increase curbside recycling of magazines and catalogs.

Initially launched in the East Coast communities of Boston and Prince George's County, Maryland, the ReMix effort helped increase magazine and catalog recycling by 17 percent and 11 percent in those locations, respectively. The program has since been expanded to the Milwaukee metro area.

Polk County Sells Recycling With New Campaign (Polk County, FL)
Polk County officials are launching a campaign that will include giveaways, multimedia publicity campaigns and a special communications to Polk's growing Hispanic population. County officials first offered the service in 1999, but expanded it last October to offer more materials and increased the number of residents served. Workers from Florida Refuse, the county's private garbage contractor, will be distributing door hangers in April to explain the program and ask residents to return a post card indicating they will participate. The cards will be entered into a drawing that will award major prizes in May.

Additional program elements include bilingual educational materials, participation from Publix Super Markets, which will install promotional displays in the lobbies of selected stores, and a costumed character named Recycle Man, who will show up at randomly selected homes to give residents who participate $20 as a thank-you gift. Before the program was expanded in October, Florida Refuse was collecting 250 tons of recyclables each month. By February the total had grown to 600 tons. Sparks said the program has gone from paying $80,000 a year to operate the sorting center to earning $20,000 a month in operating fees and the sale of recyclables.

“Recycling… It’s O! So Easy” Educations Campaign Kickoff (Omaha, Nebraska)
City officials recently unveiled their new education campaign “Recycling… It’s O! So Easy.” at a press conference with the city’s mayor and a representative from the Curbside Value Partnership. The event kicked off a new campaign aimed at increasing participation in the city’s single-stream recycling program.

As part of the effort, the city will place English and Spanish billboards on area roadways, engage Keep Omaha Beautiful to educate area school children, reach out to homeowner associations in key areas, educate the press on efforts, and mail relevant news and information to residents via their regular newsletter and a new postcard campaign. To date, the campaign has already led to a 35 percent increase in bin requests.

“Take it to the Curb!” County-Wide Communications Campaign (Brevard County, FL)
Brevard County officials partnered with the Curbside Value Partnership to educate residents about their local program via low-cost marketing materials such as fliers, bin stickers and magnets, coupled with media relations and events. After a three-month campaign was implemented, a 9.5 percent increase in all recyclables was garnered, yielding a 132 percent return-on-investment from the lift in commodities collected.

“Take it To the Curb!” Bin-drives in Low Participation Areas (Burlington County, NJ)
Burlington County will kick off a three-month county-wide recycling program called Take It To The Curb! to increase resident participation in curbside recycling, provide 2,000 bins to residents in five communities and increase the volume of high-value materials recycled such as aluminum cans and newspapers. Each of the bin-drive communities will hold events to encourage residents to get new recycling bins or promote door-to-door campaigns. If this campaign is successful in increasing participation, Burlington County will partner with the Aluminum Can Council and the Association of New Jersey Recyclers to roll out a state-wide campaign.

“Bin There. Done That!” Grassroots Resident Education Campaign (Indian River, FL) 
Identifying how and where to reach residents with key messages is a difficult task. Indian River County officials determined that because residents have to either pay for garbage collection, or transport their own trash to area Convenience Centers, that reaching them at these locations would yield great results. Recycling is offered at no added cost in Indian River and they saw that most residents were hauling their trash and garbage to the convenience centers. They could have saved themselves some trips had they just set their recycling to the curb!

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” City-Wide Campaign (Jackson Hole, WY)
Jackson Hole recently unveiled the success of their “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” campaign that involved the use of a quirky ad campaign, a partnership with their local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and guerilla marketing, which included placing announcements in local stores and even restrooms. After 12 weeks, a 15 percent increase in recyclables collected was realized.

“Take it to the Curb!” City-Wide Communications Campaign Launch (Orlando, FL)
On a sunny day in May 2004, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to kick off a new education campaign called Take it to the Curb! At the event the mayor encouraged Orlando residents to increase recycling by 10 percent. To accomplish this, he urged residents without bins to contact the city to get one.

To help promote the new campaign, city officials created rolling bill boards by covering their existing fleet of recycling trucks with new campaign-themed messages. The mayor also participated in a “ride-along” following the press conference where he hung door-hangers and talked to area residents about their needs. He also helped the driver by picking up curbside bins left on the curb and tipping them into the truck!

After the launch and subsequent city-wide communications campaign, bin requests increased 1,000 percent over the year prior.

Promising Results from UK-based Program to Evaluate the Use of Incentives to Modify Recycling Behavior (United Kingdom)
While CVP focuses its energy on curbside programs in the U.S. , we do monitor best practices that make news overseas. Here is one such example that caught our eye in a recent issue of Resource Recycling from the United Kingdom.

The British government felt incentives were the key to driving households to manage waste more sustainably. So, in 2005 the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) began a pilot program to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive range of household incentives. The incentive categories included: charitable donations, community rewards, schools rewards, personal (non-financial rewards), prize drawings and cash rewards.

In total, 100 districts and boroughs were involved in the pilots with trial areas covering over 5.2 million households in England . The key findings of the study included:

• 43 of 53 (81%) trials have been successful in recording a significant awareness of the incentive being offered
• 30 of 53 (57%) trials had a positive, attributable impact increasing the tonnage of recyclables collected
• The researchers concluded that incentives can be a useful tool to authorities that wish to enhance the performance of their waste collection service
• 6 of the 7 (86%) schools rewards pilots were successful in increasing the tonnage of recyclables collected, fostering a positive, often competitive, environment
• The program fostered a number of innovative ideas including the use of cellular phones to text message reminders to residents to recycle. No additional waste was generated to promote the incentive

For more information, please visit www.defra.gov.uk

“Recycle Man” Rewards Residents with Grocery Gift Cards (Polk County, Florida)
Polk County officials recently conducted a six-week recycling incentive program. Each recycling day, the county recycling coordinator, also known as “the Recycle Man,” and his supervisor canvassed local communities with low recycling rates to encourage residents to recycle. For each bin they observed that was properly prepared, they awarded the resident with a $20 gift card to their local grocery store. While full results are pending, the county did receive a notable increase in calls for bins as a result, and their MRF reported an increase in recycling volume.

Battle Creek Citizens Recycle for Cash Incentive (Battle Creek, Michigan)
City officials recently launched an educational program to increase recycling participation using cold hard cash as an incentive.  Residents receive an educational pamphlet in the mail outlining the city's recycling program and what materials can and cannot be placed in recycling bins. Included in the pamphlet is a post card that residents can fill out and mail to City Hall. Beginning the week of April 17, 2006 and continuing for 16 weeks, one card will be drawn each week and if the person whose name is on the card has placed his or her recyclables out for pickup that week, he or she will receive $100. If the person whose name is drawn does not put out a recycle bin that week, the prize money will be added to the next week's prize.

Door Prizes Encourage Participation at County Drop-Off Center
(Hanover, Pennsylvania)
Hanover, Pennsylvania was ordered by the DEP to make curbside recycling mandatory for all residents in the summer of 2004. The city immediately began looking for ways to track and promote recycling participation.  

One method Borough officials used was to issue a card with a bar code to each resident subscribed to the recycling service. Residents swipe the card when they take recyclables to the recycling center. The cards help the borough keep track of residents' participation in the recycling program. 

To create incentive for residents to continue dropping off recycled materials at the center, the borough will begin issuing door prizes at random to people using the recycling center starting in May 2006. Rebert said more than 800 cards were swiped at the recycling center during the first two weeks of March, and they hope the trend will continue.

Philadelphia Adds Incentive To Recycle! (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Philadelphia adds an incentive for residents to put their blue- bins out on recycling day. All they have to do is place a special, shiny decal on their bins, and they are automatically entered to win a variety of prizes. Residents can win concert tickets, movie passes, CDs, T- Shirts or a FREE Caribbean vacation. Additionally, all past and present winners are posted on Philadelphia’s recycling Web site (http://recyclingpays.phila.gov/). Each recycling week all residents are eligible to win.

The also partnered with RecycleBank to test the premise that rewarding residents for recycling (in the form of discount coupons) will yield greater volume and payback. After the test, a 44 percent lift in materials collected was realized. The city is currently considering rolling the program out on a broader level.

Blue Bag vs. Bin Collection System Test (Pasco County, FL)
Pasco County will launch a partnership program among 3,000 households to test whether a blue-bag or two bin collection systems will generate higher participation levels and increased recycling. To unveil the pilot to residents, County officials will send an information piece to all affected homeowners, attend homeowner meetings, speak to area schools and conduct media relations activities to educate key area reporters and city officials.

The County currently has a blue-bag system that does not accept paper. The test would add fiber to the stream, as well as provide two bins to one-half of the test area. The pilot is expected to conclude this summer. Results will be measured by data at the MRF as well as resident responses to pre and post-surveys.

Single-Stream Pilot Program (Orlando, FL)
Orlando is currently testing whether single-stream recycling yields greater participation and increased collections with a test of 400 households. Fully supported by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the city council, if the test proves successful, it will be rolled out city-wide.

Single-Stream Program Roll-out (Denver, CO)
In the fall of 2005 the city of Denver switched to single-stream collection. City officials partnered with the Curbside Value Partnership to help communicate the change to residents. To date, Denver homeowners have been reached via news coverage surrounding the switch, through a TV PSA campaign featuring the Mayor, direct mail to homes, cart delivery containing a "goodie-bag" of information and freebies, ads in community publications and revamped Web site information. Additionally new recycling trucks serve as rolling billboards with the campaign slogan "ReThink Recycilng" reminding residents of the change and asking them to participate.

Since the phased-in roll-out of new 96-gallon carts to residents began in late 2005 the city has seen an impressive increase in recycling. To-date, Denver has seen a 24% increase in recycling volume, a 12% increase in participation (as measured by set-out counts), a 3.3 pound per household per route increase in volume collected and a six percent increase in aluminum can recycling.

City of Omaha’s Switch to Single-Stream (Omaha, NE)
Omaharecently kicked off single-stream recycling. With the help of their MRF Firstar Fiber and the Nebraska State Recycling Association, the city effectively communicated the changes to homeowners through marketing and media relations. In the coming year the state association will also work with the city to conduct focus groups of residents, study demographic data and draft a marketing plan to keep awareness high and continue to grow participation.