Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Municipal programs are often short on funds, and it’s easy for recycling outreach to fall on the back burner amid budget constraints. One municipality in New England recently took action on the issue by collaborating with a plastics industry initiative.
Sometimes a municipal recycling program’s biggest impact is abundantly clear.
A mid-sized Colorado municipality has achieved enviable diversion results as its program has progressed for the past 25 years. One key to its success? Early adoption of a pay-as-you-throw initiative, according to local officials.
Although it’s often called the strawberry capital of the world, Watsonville, Calif. has some recycling initiatives that set it apart as well.
In the Portland, Ore. metropolitan area, no municipal recycling program is an island. Each works with its neighboring communities as part of a regional “wasteshed,” sharing diversion goals, tactics and resources.
It’s hard to argue with data, and in one Northeast community, the numbers don’t lie: Natick, Mass. has increased diversion by 14 percentage points since implementing a system to add financial incentives to recycling.
In the city of St. Louis, a relatively young recycling program has gone all-in on outreach and education efforts. And local residents have responded with enthusiasm for the city’s diversion initiatives.
In the greater Greenville, S.C. area, transitioning from bins to rollcarts was about more than capturing higher volumes of recyclables. The change ushered in a more efficient collection system while reducing litter and generating higher quality material in some cases.
Used beverage cans, historically a reliable and valuable commodity, have seen recent price lows that are adding extra strife to already stressed residential recycling markets.
A company that uses recovered glass to create construction materials is doubling capacity at its Pennsylvania aggregate manufacturing plant.