CVP Adds Community Partners

Frederick County, Md., and the cities of Norfolk, Va., and Phoenix are the latest communities to join the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP), a Keep America Beautiful (KAB) program. The communities will launch education campaigns later this summer and fall designed to increase awareness for recycling, grow participation and boost collection volumes. These three communities join 23 others as well as four states that have benefited from CVP’s resources since 2003.

“We conducted a nationwide search for communities with programs that were operationally sound, but need a little extra boost in their education efforts,” says Steve Thompson, CVP program director. “We chose these three because they have solid programs as well as a strong KAB presence to help maximize ‘boots on the ground.’ They all expressed a real desire to step up their education efforts. CVP specializes in helping communities break out of their comfort zone with new approaches to education and we look forward to helping these communities achieve their respective goals.”

Campaign planning is already underway for each community. Frederick County, a community with more than 73,000 participating households, will focus its campaign on awareness of what can and cannot be recycled and promotion of the range of recycling carts available (35-, 65- and 95-gallon). Norfolk, a community with a proud military heritage and 58,000 households, will focus its efforts on reaching out to new residents and encouraging existing residents to set out their 95-gallon recycling carts on a regular basis. Phoenix, the largest CVP partner community to date with more than 400,000 households, will target those most likely to become more diligent recyclers, known as “sometimes recyclers,” with a participation message as well as provide information on how to minimize contamination.

Education tactics will vary depending on the community but will generally include advertising, an enhanced Web and social media presence, marketing, public relations and grassroots, community-level outreach. All partners will measure the impact of their campaigns via the Re-Trac data management tool. In 2011, CVP plans to unveil a new suite of materials based on these campaigns for KAB affiliates and local recycling coordinators to use to boost their own efforts, the organization notes in a press release.

“2010 is a pivotal year for CVP,” says Matt McKenna, president and CEO of KAB. “Not only are we bringing on board our largest community partner to date, but we are harnessing the power of our affiliate network and working towards a larger-scale effort that can benefit many more communities in 2011.”

The CVP, a program of Keep America Beautiful, Inc., is designed to grow participation in curbside recycling programs nationwide. CVP was officially unveiled to communities in 2005 and is designed to engage all recycling stakeholders (including communities, private industry, haulers and materials recovery facilities) to identify solutions to improving curbside recycling programs through education. CVP’s goal is to launch and study education programs to increase participation in local curbside programs and make programs more profitable and sustainable. More information is available at www.RecycleCurbside.org.

KAB, established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization with a network of more than 1,200 affiliates and participating organizations. More information is available at www.kab.org.