Recyclepedia

Waste education and outreach is a challenge for municipalities, haulers, schools, and businesses alike. Reaching audiences with timely, pertinent information is both important and effective, yet it’s often overlooked due to time constraints and lack of marketing knowledge.  

Below, we’ve outlined five tips to help you connect with your community.  

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Expand your education programs

Digital resources aren’t something everyone has access to.  Expand your educational outreach to schools and teach children the importance of proper recycling and waste disposal.  

When it comes to local events, focus on fun and unique ways to engage children, like providing activities and giveaway items. Our partners in New Jersey have printed off our children’s activity packets to distribute to parents, providing them with age-appropriate resources that make learning about recycling fun and simple.

The education and outreach team in Las Cruces, NM makes it their goal to visit all 40 public schools in their district every year. Children go home to their families with quizzes, certificates, and learning packets, along with a better understanding of how waste disposal works. In the future, it’s their plan to incorporate Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) tours for field trips.

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Think outside the box

Innovation is invaluable. Expanding your efforts into every avenue available to you allows you to connect with residents of your community wherever they are. Partner with your local community centres, libraries, radio and TV stations, and sports venues to spread the word about proper recycling and waste habits.  

The team at the Mercer County Improvement Authority makes use of the local minor league baseball stadium to reach families: “[There is] a lot of foot traffic during the summer months. And we have a six-foot-by-six-foot board message board that we pay for every year just to get the message out. Calendars, QR codes for Recycle Coach—we encourage them to download the app.”

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Make learning easy

People want to do good, but they’re busy. Making waste education simple and accessible encourages greater participation in the community, leading to lower contamination rates and more recycled materials. Meet residents where they are, both at their community and in their homes, and—most often—on their phones.  

“You don't want to add to the stressors of life,” says Dan Napoleon of Mercer County. “You want something that's user friendly. Everybody has a smartphone, so when you can find out when your recycling day is, special events, even your solid waste days, it just makes it a lot easier.”  

When you’re educating your community, keep things uncomplicated. Avoid lengthy PDFs and posts and keep your information hyper-relevant. Focus on key contaminants in your community by keeping your waste messaging local and avoiding broader, general waste information that may not be applicable.

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Make use of your social media

Social media is still an effective tool that has the capability of reaching many of your residents. Having a strong social media presence gets the word out about waste practices, educates your residents, and allows you to form a connection with them. Post weekly tips for troublesome materials, experiment with humour and memes, and grow your page by posting video-based content. Yes, this might mean passing the phone to your Gen Z employee or summer student!  

In Glendale, CA, the outreach team runs monthly Recycle Coach reports to help guide their social media. These reports tell the team what areas residents could use improvement in. Using this information, they know what to focus on and how to interact with their residents. Running compost pail giveaways, organizing environmental programs, and offering webinars are just a few ways they’re making their social media about interaction and engagement.  

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Interact with your residents

You can do your best to educate your residents through social media posts, flyers, posters, and ads, but interacting with residents allows you to really connect with them to get the message through. Responding to your residents’ comments on social media, hosting events, and going out into the community to meet with your residents in person can open up the possibility of your residents feeling comfortable asking questions, learning more, and caring more about the recycling process.  

The Solid Waste and Recycling team in Frederick County, MD prioritize interacting with their residents because their “residents want to have this interaction... They want to be involved, and they want to better their skills.” Connecting residents with the recycling process will create a more proactive, clean community.  

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In 2022, the OECD performed a study on global plastic recycling rates. The findings showed that only 9% of plastics are recycled worldwide. To put that in perspective, nearly 350 million tons of plastic are created each year. That means 318,500,000 tons end up in landfills, are incinerated, or are left entirely uncollected. These numbers aren’t even including paper (global recycling rate: 60%), glass (global recycling rate: 21%), e-waste (global recycling rate: 22.3%), and other discarded materials.  

There are several reasons why recycling numbers are so low; for example, many regions aren’t equipped with proper recycling facilities and programs. But one major thing that bars materials from being properly recycled—in any recycling facility around the world—is contamination. And the key to reducing contamination is education.  

What is Contamination?

Contamination refers to the materials that cannot be processed for recycling due to being in contact with non-recyclable materials. This can be non-recyclable plastics, such as Saran Wrap or plastic bags, broken glass, food, or any other non-recyclable material.  

Contaminated recycling is rejected at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and is typically sent to the landfill. As MRFs do not have the resources to separate every recyclable item from every non-recyclable item, sometimes entire loads are discarded when there is too much contamination.    

Contamination Solutions

1. Every location has different recycling rules. Recycle Coach helps your residents and customers understand what’s recyclable and what’s not. Our What Goes Where tool allows users to search our database of over 400 items, with a repository of 15,000 search terms. We allow users to easily learn how to recycle right in their community.  

2. Help avoid “wish-cycling.” Many people mean well when it comes to recycling and put anything they hope will be recycled into the recycling bin. This is detrimental to recycling efforts, as it leads to contamination. Recycle Coach allows users to understand which items are not recyclable, as well as what can be done with them, such as composting, donation, hazardous waste drop-off, and general waste.  

3. Use clear labelling in your workplace. To help your own employees recycle more effectively, place your waste bins in easy-to-access, high-traffic areas. Apply labels above the bins to more clearly demonstrate what is accepted and what’s not.  

Using Recycle Coach allows users to learn about proper waste disposal. We make real differences in the communities and organizations we partner with, making for greener, more waste-informed residents and customers. Check out our Success Stories for real life examples of how we can help communities like yours.  

Our 2024 Recycling Survey results come at a time when the industry is facing major shifts.

Changing regulations, increased reliance on artificial intelligence, and expanding investment into circular economy initiatives. As the global push continues towards evolving guidelines, access to the right information will be crucial for resident participation and compliance.

Our Annual Survey, now in its 4^th consecutive year, tracks evolving trends, identifies common areas of misunderstanding, and highlights where more education is needed. Residents are quizzed about the recyclability of items based on their local guidelines, covering everything from common household materials like plastic bottles to more challenging items like drinking glasses and lightbulbs.

Environmental Impact

Residents across North America are showing continued interest in responsible waste management at home. The latest survey found that 82% of respondents believe recycling has a positive effect on the environment, a metric that has grown every year since the survey’s inception in 2021, speaking volumes to the investment local governments are putting into education.

Solving For Contamination

Contamination remains a challenge.

The overall correct answer rate for material recyclability measured at 68.9%, a slight decrease compared to previous years.

As many regions have set aggressive goals to increase recycling participation rates, proper education must be in place to combat misunderstanding and ultimately, lost materials.  

Jeff Galad, President of Recycle Coach, underscored the importance of providing accurate and accessible information, not only for recycling, but across all waste streams:

“Our mission is to help solve local waste and recycling challenges by providing residents with the information they need, when they need it. That may be information on whether or not a material can be recycled, what to do with organics, or how to properly dispose of bulky furniture and e-waste.”

Opportunities for Improved Material Recovery

Survey data reveals that misconceptions about local rules continue to result in the loss of valuable recyclables. Key findings include:

• 74.8% of respondents answered correctly when asked about plastic bottles, jars, and jugs, despite their acceptance in most programs.
• Aluminum foil containers, Tupperware, and plastic cutlery also ranked among materials that stumped residents.

Providing Communities with the Right Tools

Recycle Coach remains committed to empowering local governments with the tools they need to deliver effective education across all waste streams, including organics, yard waste, and bulky pick-up.

By leveraging on-demand digital technology, cities can ensure their residents have access to accurate, localized information when they need it most.

For the full 2024 Annual Survey results, please click here.

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