Partner Stories

Centre County, Pennsylvania has their hands full with overseeing the waste and recycling education of over 158,000 residents, who produce 15,000 tons of recycling annually. Home to Penn State University, Centre County’s population is constantly in flux, and new members of the county need education every year.  

The county knows what works for them, and they proudly continue to separate their recycling by hand. They want to do everything they can to ensure a clean, efficient environment for the MRF employees. This means employing targeted, consistent messaging to county residents that continuously reminds them of their duty to practice proper recycling.  

Amy Schirf, Education Coordinator at the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority, explains that they make use of every avenue they can to get the word out about Recycle Coach. This includes venues, vehicles, events, and frequently used items, such as coffee cups and flyers. Centre County ensures that residents are regularly reminded of Recycle Coach and encouraged to download the app. They meet their residents where they are to make it easier for everyone; the more people who know about Recycle Coach, the less stress it is on the county’s recycling and waste team.  

After just one year with Recycle Coach, Centre County has seen user participation go up 130%, including a large influx of users at the beginning of the school year. And not only that—over the past year, they have also sent out 20,000 reminders to residents concerning waste collection. The county’s users are learning quickly; the weekly “We Wanted to Know” questions have a 70% correct answer rate, and this number has been going up as residents learn more.  

“My main job is to educate our residents, students, businesses—anyone who will listen on proper recycling practices—because we process about 15,000 tons of recycling each year, and most of it is done by hand… So the better I educate, the better it is for [the crew]. And Recycle Coach has helped a lot.” —Amy Schirf, Education Coordinator

Background

These containers, commonly used for coffee, nuts, dough and snacks, are multilayer paper canisters with metal ends that make up to 20 to 60% steel by weight of the package. Recycling a paper container with a steel bottom reduces global warming potential by more than 23% when compared to landfilling steel and helps reduce the need to mine for virgin iron ore. Because of a lack of education, it has historically been under recycled. Sonoco sought out to change that, with a hope to increase recycling rates of this packaging format and the amount of material that can be diverted from landfill.

Solution

Support waste and recycling professionals with the materials they need to help grow awareness amongst their residents about the recyclability of this often-misunderstood material, executed via key content placements throughout the Recycle Coach network, including blogs, emails, and placement in wide-reaching Client Portal.

Results

• 1000s of impressions by waste and recycling professionals for spiral can resources
• Residents in areas that accepted these materials learned instructions for properly recycling practices
• Increased resident awareness through usage of turnkey marketing and social media assets shared on municipal channels

By leveraging channels throughout the Recycle Coach platform, our partners at Sonoco were able to increase awareness and engagement amongst recycling professionals and residents alike.

Our partnership with Mercer County, NJ goes back to 2012, before we went by Recycle Coach, and even before our state-wide partnership. Mercer County, home to New Jersey’s state capital, Trenton, is a densely packed county comprised of over 385,000 residents. Since partnering with us, the county has continuously come up with innovative ways to encourage residents to recycle and use the resources they have available to them.

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Mercer County takes environmental education seriously. Having transformed their department over the past twenty years to one that makes a dedicated effort to bring on like-minded staff who can think innovatively, they are avid marketers of Recycle Coach and recycling education.  

Dan Napoleon, Director of Environmental Programs, says the secret to their success is “thinking outside the box.” They utilize high-traffic areas, capitalizing on placement, setting up advertisements on waste containers and on community message boards.  

Most recently, the MCIA implemented a marketing campaign that involved wrapping an elevator with recycling information and a Recycle Coach call to action. Eye catching and informative, it encourages users to be more involved with their municipality’s recycling. Taking advantage of other popular events, they also use the local minor league baseball stadium to not only advertise recycling best practices, but to also collect all recycling at the end of every game.  

They might like to go big with their projects, but they don’t forget the small stuff. Using social media, calendars, QR codes, and even “Recycle Nights,” the MCIA encourages recycling and the use of Recycle Coach through multiple avenues to reach a wider audience.  

Not only has Mercer County had 2 million interactions over the past 12 months, but they also have a 77% correct response rate on the app. Their recycling habits reflect this: their contamination rate is 12%--six percent lower than the state-wide average’s 18% and half the national average of 25%.

With two million resident interactions with Recycle Coach content over the past year, Mercer County is proving just how effective getting the word out can be.  

Background

The City of Newark, DE approached us with a common dilemma. How do they teach residents that plastic bags can't be recycled and recyclables shouldn't be bagged?

Newark had reached crisis levels of plastic waste, with residents who wanted to help but weren't sure how. Plastic bags often end up in the recycling stream, causing terrible outcomes for the local environment, broken machinery, and most importantly, an increase of contaminated materials headed straight for the landfill.

Solution

To better understand the problem at hand, the City of Newark audited the recycling bins of 25 random residential homes. On inspection, loose plastic bags and bags used in the collection of other recyclables were counted, and in total, 29 plastic bags were found in the random sample.

To lower the number of plastic bags ending up in recycling, we launched a month-long lesson on the mobile app to educate residents all about plastic bags and how to dispose of them.

Results

After the end of the Campaign, the City of Newark conducted another recycling audit. On inspection, only 5 plastic bags were found, proving that when given targeted information, residents are quick to change their recycling habits.

Key Takeaway

Connecting residents to the information and education that they need, local problems can be solved with cost-effective localized solutions.

Recently, we sat down with the wonderful Kim Johnson, senior program specialist for the City of Olympia, WA, to chat about their local recycling program and how they use Recycle Coach. Kim works closely with single- and multi-family homes in her community and takes pride in educating residents on recycling best practices. You can check out the full interview below:

To get the word out, Olympia uses an always-on strategy to encourage resident adoption by featured Recycle Coach on their annual collection calendar, on all of their acceptable item lists, and in their utility billing inserts to make sure residents are taking notice. Kim also takes advantage of of the data from her residents' material searches to include specific information on utility billing inserts, in addition to the city sending on average 20,000 to 30,000 every month.For anyone interested in serving their municipality and getting involved in the waste industry, Kim says the most rewarding part of her job is being able to educate customers and see the light bulb go off with residents on why recycling is so important for the environment.

Conclusion

More than 15,000 residents in Olympia are part of the Recycle Coach ecosystem, and we are so proud to call them a partner.

Background

In 2022, the State of New Jersey set out to tackle the growing issue of plastic pollution by enacting legislation to ban several single-use plastic products. The legislation would be one of the most comprehensive bans on single-use paper and plastic bags across the entire United States, intended to help reduce plastic, lessen landfill volume and reduce litter.

Solution

To educate and inform as many residents as possible, we developed and launched an educational campaign on the Recycle Coach mobile app.

This campaign had two goals: to educate residents on why single-use plastic bags, cutlery, and straws would no longer be distributed across New Jersey, and to teach them about the specifics of the new legislation.

The campaign consisted of various media, including videos, infographics, monthly quiz questions focused on single-use plastics, blogs, and custom social media packages for municipalities and counties to spread the word to residents. Results  During the four months the Campaign was live, our educational media was viewed tens of thousands of times, including the Bag Up NJ' video by DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTorrette, as well as several infographics displaying information on the plastic and paper bag regulations. By the end of the campaign, well over 80% of users understood that they could no longer get certain single-use plastics in New Jersey, and 9,000 residents earned a digital badge for participating in a culminating quiz. Key Area Reductions:

• 93% of participants learned that you could not get a single-use plastic bag at grocery stores
• 88% of participants knew that polystyrene plates, cups, and cutlery would no longer be available
• 85% learned they could not recycle polystyrene in their program
• 82% learned that plastic shopping bags should not be placed in regular curbside recycling
• 67% stated the biggest challenge switching to reusable bags was forgetting them, while 21% of participants had no challenges

Key Takeaway

By using Recycle Coach for recycling education initiatives that go beyond curbside pick-up, New Jersey was able to effectively communicate information about this significant legislation.

Frederick County has created an audience for their multifaceted recycling and solid waste program, and it's a large undertaking for a small team. They have an engaged resident base that's dedicated to recycling and learning proper waste disposal practices, but the County runs into many issues with the all-too-common problem of wish-cycling.The Solid Waste and Recycling team in part blames the way that recycling has been painted in a rosy light, making it seem like an easy, one-step process. Frederick County residents want to learn and participate, but it's creating a bigger problem when individuals don't participate correctly.

Watch our full interview with Paul Varga, Communications Manager for Solid Waste and Recycling in Frederick County, MD, where we sat down to chat about their success with Recycle Coach.

As Paul explains, the Solid Waste and Recycling team at Frederick County's efforts all come down to engagement, and not relying solely on outreach alone. They are getting the word out about the Recycle Coach platform and making changes. Incorporating the web app and using the words Recycle Coach often, they are getting residents accustomed to their branding and marketing. For every post they make on their social media, they do their best to direct people where to go. Rather than overloading their residents with messages, they send out reminders once per week and are sure to keep their messaging standardized. In the past year, there were 3.1 million interactions with reminders and notifications, up from 2.5 million the year before. Every month, there are nearly 150,000 interactions with Recycle Coach content. 20,000 of these account for activities and quizzes, and not only that, but there is an 81% correct response rate when asked about disposal rules.

Conclusion

Frederick County has no plans to slow down, however. There is always room for improvement, says Paul. He explains that they strive to incorporate recycling information into their other communications as well and emphasizes that the important thing is to remain transparent, be engaging, and always tell the truth.

Supporting recycling education in a university town like East Lansing, MI comes with unique challenges.As the home of Michigan State University, East Lansing sees its population swell by thousands every school year. Not only are these residents transient, but most are environmentally-minded students with an enthusiasm for eco-friendly habits that often results in wish-cycling.

Watch our full interview with Cliff Walls, Environmental Specialist for the City of East Lansing, MI, where we sat down to chat about their first year with Reycle Coach.

Key Results

• In just one year, East Lansing has amassed 2,000+ residents using Recycle Coach app and sends close to 3,000 reminders monthly
• Cliff uses every channel available from social media to word of mouth, to working with neighborhood presidents and including materials in water bill inserts to help drive downloads (as Cliff says, find the unique ways to get the word out and let the magic happen.)
• Inbound calls from residents are in the single digits since implementing Recycle Coach

Conclusion

With every new school year, East Lansing rises to the occasion to keep its population educated through new and creative ways.

Background

Coffee cups, black plastic, paper towels and plastic bags: The City of Aurora, ON faced a host of common recycling problems. They needed to reduce their contamination rate, benchmarked at 24.4%, and increase the amount of materials entering the recycling stream. SolutionAfter an initial waste audit of 60 households, we helped develop and disseminate five highly targeted educational campaigns. The goal of these campaigns was to educate residents about recycling fundamentals, starting from the very basics of contamination and wish-cycling, and prompt a positive change in resident habits. Focusing on the key areas of concern, residents engaged in AI-driven and gamified educational campaigns to teach them about Aurora's recycling program.

Results

In our follow-up audit, households that participated in at least one campaign showed marked improvement. There was a 30% increase in actual recyclable materials collected and an overall 81% drop in contamination. The collective contamination rate plummeted to 3.5%, fueled by outstanding results in individual areas of concern.

Key Area Reductions:

• 99% reduction in food and liquids
• 99% fewer coffee cups
• 96% less black plastic
• 88% fewer paper towels
• 40% less plastic film- 69% fewer snack food bags
• 31% fewer foam trays
• 99% drop in masks and gloves (PPE)

Key Takeways

With the right education and tools, changing resident behavior is possible. Our data-driven approach helped reduce contamination by a significant amount in the City of Aurora, ON.

Background

After the loss of a paper sorting facility in Passaic County in January of 2021, the state of New Jersey set out to tackle the growing issue of waste and recycling facility (MRF) fires caused by the incorrect disposal of rechargeable batteries.

Solution

With millions of New Jersey residents already using the Recycle Coach platform for waste and recycling information, we helped develop and disseminate an educational campaign in partnership with Call2Recycle. The targeted campaign consisted of blogs, quiz questions, an interactive picture tap quiz, and other various modules and media. Along with this campaign, Call2Recycle launched its national "Avoid the Spark" outreach and battery recycling drop-off program to increase safe battery disposal.

Results

During the Campaign:

• 10,000+ video views of our Fire Newscast Video
• 4,500+ residents interacted with the Avoid the Spark Battery Guideline infographic
• 4,000+ residents earned a digital battery badge by completing quiz questions
• 3,000+ residents signed a pledge to practice safe battery disposal
• 2,500+ residents read our mobile app blogs about battery safety

By the end of the Campaign:

• 98% learned rechargeable batteries led to increased fire risk at recycling facilities
• 96% of participants knew not to put rechargeable batteries in their curbside recycling
• 96% learned rechargeable batteries should go to a Call2Recycle drop-off location
• 87% knew where to find a Call2Recycle drop-off bin
• 80% of participants could correctly identify which devices use rechargeable batteries

Conclusion

Key Takeaway Educational content through the Recycle Coach network supports other ongoing outreach efforts as part of a complete multi-faceted approach to reach residents.

Background

To reduce contamination caused by common materials, like paper coffee cups and their plastic lids, as well as increase the amount of recycled materials collected, it's imperative that residents  understand their local rules. It was our goal to teach residents across North American districts proper disposal of coffee cups, a material that is often confusing due to there being many different kinds of cups available in the market and differing rules across different municipalities.

Solution

To teach residents, we enabled a 4-month long educational campaign consisting of Featured Lessons, blog articles, and other modules that incorporated and explained disposal rules specific to their region. These educational modules displayed on both our mobile and web app. We then compared PRO users' engagement and material correct answer rates with a comparative group of equal size comprised of users who only received quiz questions. We compared the data between the two groups:

• Group 1 included all 88,859 residents belonging to PRO districts who would be served educational content
• Group 2 included 88,990 residents randomly selected from Essentials districts in various geographical regions who would not be served education content Results Residents who were part of the PRO campaign group engaged with more than ten times the amount of coffee cup-related content than residents of Essentials districts and achieved a higher correct answer rate when asked about their local disposal rules.

The Campaign group's Correct Answer Rate was 47.54% higher when quizzed about disposal rules for paper coffee cups and by 51.72% when quizzed about plastic coffee cup lids, a staggering difference in their understanding of this problem material.

Key Takeaway

Presenting residents with dedicated educational content on problem materials helps improve recycling knowledge with the potential to change recycling behaviours.