Why You Should Think About Adding Recycling EdTech to Your Budget

When the time comes to review your annual budget, along comes the need to scrap ideas that aren’t working and the potential to add new resources to your communications strategy. With limited time and an often already stretched budget, pie in the sky ideas are off the table—you need to pinpoint solutions that meet the demands of your program quickly.

So to save you time and to provide some insight, here’s a new resource you can add to your budget — technology solutions.

Here are 5 reasons why you should think about adding technology to your budget this year:

1. Modernization pressures

The pressure to modernize with technology is pressing. Smartphone users worldwide are projected to rise to over 2 billion by 2017 and the number of internet users worldwide has reached 3.5 billion. Municipalities that choose to reach their residents with technological tools are making a conscious effort to tune into the evolving needs of their residents in a race to remain relevant.

Source: PEW RESEARCH CENTRE (via Spring 2015 Global Attitudes survey. Q71 & Q72)

2. Streamlines some of your job responsibilities

Your work week is bursting at the seams with a variety of detail-oriented duties. With limited time and resources, technology solutions can quickly and cost-effectively streamline a number of your job responsibilities into one centralized system, while allowing you to measurably monitor and improve your recycling program. Here are just a few ways that technological tools that can help you do your job more efficiently:

• Actively reduces the numbers of incoming calls to your office
• Standardizes incoming reports of collection or municipal infrastructure problems
• Helps improve special event attendance numbers

3. Increases your program’s accessibility

24/7 access: Technological solutions give your residents 24/7 access to recycling and waste information all year-round. Having tools that enable residents to learn and interact with your program, at a time that is convenient for them (and at a time when you are physically not in the office) boosts your program’s accessibility, helping to create a smoother functioning program and a happier, more informed recycling network.

Multilingual municipalities: With the help of translation, technological tools can help ensure the right recycling information reaches each and every resident in municipalities with multilingual areas.

Makes your program accessible to all ages: Technological solutions help you target a wide range of resident demographics. More than 90% of 25- to 50-year olds are “plugging in” regularly and four out of five people in this age group sleep with or directly next to their smart phones. 25-50 year olds are also twice as likely to use mobile devices to access the internet for information. The older generation, too, is using digital technologies to access information online. As many as 76% of older boomers (aged 60-69) now use the internet regularly and nearly two-thirds of 70- to 87-year olds “plug in” at some level.

4. Empowers you to effectively address resident complacency

Many residents believe they are great recyclers, when in reality, there is often great room for improvement. Technology helps address recycling complacency by providing residents with interactive tools and platforms that empower them to engage with your program. By leveraging technology, you can educate your residents through the use of quizzes, games, blog content and digital contests and competitions.

5. Helps you extend your communications reach

Technology helps build your communications reach by automating and analyzing user acquisition. While you perform the other duties in your job description, your resident contact list quietly grows with the help of streamlined automated algorithms. And user analytic reports also help you monitor your communications reach, allowing you to pinpoint exactly how residents are tuning into your program and on which devices. Through these two features—automation and analytics—technology can help boost the reach and the productivity of your municipal waste program.

These are reasons why you should think about adding technology solutions to your budget. Which challenge do you need addressed that technology can help with?