Research from RRS found that in 2021, only 9% of U.S. recycling programs used a search app or tool for outreach, but apps appear to be gaining in popularity. | zhu-difeng/Shutterstock
Smartphones are a ubiquitous tool for many Americans, and several states have recently started using apps, including Recycle Coach, to disseminate recycling information.
The Illinois EPA announced on Jan. 16 it had partnered with Recycle Coach to “provide all Illinois residents in 6,835 units of local government a holistic, locally-tailored, easy to access recycling education platform.”
Illinois EPA Director James Jennings said the app will “provide all Illinois residents with advanced and easily accessible tools to allow them to increase and improve recycling throughout our communities.”
Canadian company Recycle Coach plans to conduct a community-specific evaluation of materials management infrastructure and develop a website, smartphone app and marketing materials tailored to each community.
New Jersey’s EPA also announced at the beginning of the year that it had joined the Recycle Coach network.
Somerset County mayor Brian Gallagher said the app “changes the way we communicate information about waste and recycling, and makes it convenient for our residents to stay up-to-date on any changes to their recycling schedule.”
“Residents can access Recycle Coach from their desktop computers, mobile devices or through digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home,” he added. “By leveraging the power of technology, the platform makes it easier for residents to get disposal information about thousands of household items anytime they need it – and the best part is, it’s free.”
In November, South Carolina launched the “Recycle Here SC” app, which the state Department of Environmental Services developed alongside PalmettoPride and the S.C. Beverage Association. It was funded by the federal Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant.
Myra Reece, SCDES interim director, said the department’s web-based recycling information tool was extremely successful, and the app “will make access to recycling information more convenient, reduce confusion and lessen contamination of recyclable materials.”
Recycle Here SC lists all the recycling programs in the state. From there, users can search county-specific recycling information or filter for programs that accept specific items. The app also allows users to get notifications about special collection events and recycling, composting, litter prevention and waste reduction programs.
“The Recycle Here SC app is meant to complement pre-existing mobile apps that some counties already have in place, as it focuses on information for the state instead of the county level,” according to the press release. “For the counties that don’t have a recycling app, this new product puts the information right at their residents’ fingertips.”
Further, internet giant Google recently supported the Swedish recycling app Bower, helping it expand its AI-visioning model worldwide.
The recent examples illustrate how app-based recycling education has been gaining steam. In 2021, RRS released a study that surveyed 3,277 local recycling programs in the U.S. and 282 recycling programs in Canada in 2020 and 2021, finding that Canadians were more likely to use search tools and apps.
Back then, 28% of the Canadian programs surveyed used at least one app, representing 70% of the population in the survey. However, only 9% of U.S. programs, representing 17% of the population surveyed, reported using a search app or tool. More recent data wasn’t available.
However, there has been industry push for years on the need to update recycling outreach methods. In 2017, Emily Coven, founder of Recyclist, a green technology company, wrote an op-ed in Resource Recycling, noting that “it’s simply time to change the way we play the outreach game.”
“More than 50 percent of residents say they turn to the internet when they need recycling information, according to a recent Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) survey,” she wrote. “It seems odd, then, that over half of the municipalities we’ve evaluated are not following basic best practices when it comes to providing information online.”