Creating buy-in

For quite some time, I’ve felt one of the significant challenges facing the waste and recycling industry is consumer education. I sense that many people can’t explain the differences between the various types of plastic or discuss which are easy or difficult to recycle. I know I couldn’t before I started with Waste Today. I also doubt that many consumers can expound upon the dangers of batteries and electronics in material recovery facilities.

The industry doesn’t need consumers to be experts on the subject; however, what it does need is for consumers to understand how and what to recycle. I had assumed the “how to” part of education was the primary challenge, but people also seem to be questioning the reality of recycling. In news articles and social media, I’ve seen questions about whether recyclables really are being recycled. For years, curbside recycling was, for many consumers, an out-of-sight, out-of-mind affair, but the general public increasingly has become concerned about the environment. With that increased level of interest, consumers have expressed a desire for more transparency in what happens to their recyclables after they’re collected at the curb, and the answers are not always straightforward.

Taking on this challenge is Rosemont, Illinois-based LRS and the city of Chicago. LRS has worked with Chicago and Redlands, California-based ESRI’s ArcGIS software to explain to the general public what happens after glass, old corrugated containers, paper, plastic, aluminum cans and other metal leave the curb. LRS and Chicago launched Storymap in August to track recyclables collected through the city’s Blue Cart residential recycling program to their final destinations.

By explaining step-by-step via a map (which is where ArcGIS figures in), the city and LRS are showcasing what happens after recyclables are collected.

As skepticism of recycling grows, creating buy-in has become increasingly important for haulers and recyclers. Several people have told me they don’t bother separating recyclables from trash because they believe it all just ends up in the landfill, which could be a byproduct of misinformed reporting. This includes a piece by ABC News in which the news outlet planted tracking devices in plastic bag bins at retail collection locations and reported that many of the trackers did not end up in plastic bag recycling facilities (possibly because the trackers aren’t plastic bags and could have been removed as contamination).

As more Chicago residents see Storymap, I hope it leads to stronger recycling rates for the city and LRS, but time will tell. If it does work, it looks like the program could be replicated in other areas, which could have a real positive effect on the environment.