Municipal Recycling

Tetra Pak Inc., Eureka Recycling and the city of Saint Paul, Minn., have launched a public education campaign about the addition of aseptic packaging to the city’s curbside program.

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has challenged residents to recycle aseptic containers in their curbside bins.

"Recycling milk cartons and juice boxes helps us accomplish our mission of demonstrating waste is preventable," Susan Hubbard, CEO if Eureka Recycling, says. "We want to collect every juice box and milk carton available to eliminate the high number of cartons ending up in the trash."

"Tetra Pak is working with local governments and recyclers to establish even more carton recycling programs nationwide," Ed Klein, vice president of public and environmental affairs for the company, says. "Our cartons are comprised of between 70 and 81 percent paper and can be made into paper towel and tissue products."

Tetra Pak’s goal is to increase curbside recycling of aseptic cartons from 18 to 27 million households nationwide by 2012.

More than 90 percent of Ann Arbor residents are participating in the city’s curbside recycling program, according to the National Citizen Survey that was recently conducted in the city of Ann Arbor.

According to the National Citizen Survey, 94 percent of residents have recycled from home at least once in the past year. Eighty-two percent indicated they recycle curbside more than once a month.

The survey also provided Ann Arbor residents with the opportunity to rate city services, safety, quality of life and the priority of various city investments. In January, more than 1,100 Ann Arbor residents responded to the National Citizen Survey.

Recycling services were rated the highest (76 average rating) of all utility services by respondents. Other services rated included garbage collection (74 average rating), yard waste pickup (68), storm drainage (59), drinking water (66) and sewer services (68).

"This level of curbside recycling participation is world-class and clearly demonstrates that conserving resources and the environment is a high priority for the Ann Arbor community," Recycle Ann Arbor CEO Melinda Uerling says.

"However, we are still faced with the challenge of encouraging 6 percent of Ann Arbor residents to start recycling," she adds. "And we know that recycling participation for businesses in Ann Arbor could be much higher."

When residents were asked how important a variety of investments was for the city of Ann Arbor, recycling ranked second only to public safety areas (specifically, law enforcement and fire protection). Forty-five percent of respondents rated public safety as "essential," compared with 40 percent rating recycling as essential.

Residents were also asked to rate the importance of various quality of life issues in Ann Arbor, including bike paths, availability of alternate transportation, recycling programs, traffic speed patrols, increased police presence, code enforcement, neighborhood parks, and historic district preservation. Of all of these issues, "recycling programs" received the highest rating (37 percent) in the "essential" category, followed by alternate transportation (28 percent responding essential) and neighborhood parks (24 percent essential).

The National Citizen Survey is a collaborative effort between National Research Center Inc. (NRC) and the International City/County Management Association. The NRC’s database includes the results from citizen surveys conducted in more than 450 jurisdictions in more than 40 states, which allows local results to be compared with national norms.

When compared with national responses received from 180 jurisdictions throughout the United States, the quality of recycling services in Ann Arbor was ranked in the 92nd percentile, or 16th overall, out of the 180 jurisdictions.

Recycle Ann Arbor started Michigan’s first curbside recycling program in 1978 and currently operates the state’s largest community drop-off center, the ReUse Center, the Environmental House green building resource center, the Ann Arbor curbside recycling program and Calvert’s Roll-Off Containers.

More information about Recycle Ann Arbor is available at www.recycleannarbor.org.

Pennsylvania’s York and Lancaster counties have set a goal to increase residential curbside recycling among participating municipalities by 10 percent before the end of 2007.

The Aluminum Can Council’s Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) has selected PROP (Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania) and the Solid Waste Management Authorities of Lancaster and York counties to participate in its campaign to increase participation in local curbside recycling programs.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for two counties in Pennsylvania to work together to educate residents about recycling," John Frederick, executive director of the PROP, says. "So many counties across the state face the same challenges when it comes to marketing their curbside recycling programs. This partnership will help demonstrate that working together to share messages and resources can be a win for everyone."

With more than 35 partnerships in place, the invitation-only CVP program, sponsored by the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturer’s Institute and their funding members, including Alcoa, Anheiser-Busch Metal Container, ARCO, Ball, Novelis and REXAM, works with individual communities to increase participation and awareness of local curbside recycling programs.

In Lancaster and York counties, the campaign will focus on educating residents on materials that can be recycled through their curbside programs.

"Sometimes people really want to do the right thing but they don’t realize that putting unacceptable materials in the bin, such as plastic toys and mirrors, actually hurts the entire recycling stream," Tim Breneisen, recycling manager, Lancaster County Sold Waste Management Authority, says. "We want to get people in the habit of recycling all of the accepted materials, all of the time."

Created four years ago, the national CVP program is a research-based partnership with communities, haulers, material recovery facilities (MRFs) and other stakeholders to identify solutions to improving curbside recycling programs and address recycling rates.

More information on the Curbside Value Partnership, including data and research that supports the partnership’s findings, is available at www.RecycleCurbside.org.