Back to News and Resources
How Recycling EdTech Can Tune Residents Into Your Program (For Free)
It’s difficult to hold an entire public program on your shoulders. Additinonally, in the weeks and months that make up your year, there is often not a lot of time for new program ideas or inspiration. Combatting recycling complacency is a challenge, but there are free resources available today, that can improve your residents recycling habits while alleviating some of your job pressures.
The Recycle Coach Inform Account is a free package that provides your residents with a one-stop digital shop for all recycling and waste related information in their municipality.
The free package includes a customizable smartphone app and web app (for your website and Facebook page) specifically tailored to your program by providing residents with:
- Free personalized collection and event schedules
- Free collection and event reminders – including special reminders for holiday changes
This feature automatically sends reminders via email or push notification to your resident’s smartphone or computer. Reminders notify residents of:
- Weekly recycling, garbage or yard waste collections
- Annual recycling or community events and
- Lets residents know about specific holiday collection changes
Data shows that 40% of all residents who download the Recycle Coach app for their municipality sign up for these reminders.
- Free ‘What type of recycler are you?’ quiz to help educate residents
The “What type of recycler are you” quiz is a voluntary test that measures each resident’s personal recycling IQ. It asks residents about everything from lightbulbs to plastic bags to old mobile phones.
The quiz also asks residents to rate their overall recycling competency both before taking the quiz and then again at the end of it. After being asked 18 knowledge testing questions, among other things, here’s what the analytics show:
- 39% or residents rate themselves as a “worse” recycler after taking the quiz compared to their initial ranking
- On average, the residents who do rate themselves worse, rate themselves roughly 20% lower
The Recycle Coach quiz is purposely packed with challenging questions, helping to shake resident complacency and expose gaps in recycling knowledge. The more a resident realizes they don’t know about recycling, throughout the process of taking the quiz, the more they realize there is much more to learn.
- Free access to helpful articles
Through the Recycle Coach blog, residents are given access to articles focusing on a number of recycling and reuse topics. Blogs ranging from how to properly dispose of pet waste to building materials or even how to reuse fashion and fabrics, all provide a stream of educational content to keep your residents engaged and continuously learning.
- Free reports to monitor how many of your residents are using these features
The MSW Access account provides you with analytics that give you the power to personally monitor and measure your reach and engagement levels with your residents. The reporting system allows you to track:
-
- How many residents are using your municipality’s mobile app
- Exact number of app downloads
- Number of page content views within the app
- Number of residents subscribing to push notifications or email communication
- Which residents are visiting your municipalities recycling webpage
- Which residents are visiting the Recycle Coach website
Residents can access these free features through the Recycle Coach app and website – there’s no cost and residents will not be spammed or receive advertising messages. The package comes with an easy-to-install website ad that links directly to a dedicated page for your municipality.
The goal is to develop a community of informed recyclers that improve the quality and quantity of materials recovered at your local MRF. If you decide that enhanced functionality might benefit your municipality, your account can be affordably upgraded at any time to include more features.
This is one thing that you can do right now, for free, to actively engage your residents.