The residents of Watertown, Massachusetts, a Boston area suburb with a population of thirty thousand, are seeing great success from their recent improvements to city-wide recycling initiatives.

A mere four months after creating a new, curbside recycling program, the city has seen the level of garbage generated by residents drop by over twenty percent and the level of recyclable material  increase by close to thirty five percent. All parties involved from city officials to residents to the contracted waste and recycling haulers, are pleased with the success.

The new recycling program, which began over the summer, involves picking up recycling materials every other week using sturdy, sixty-four gallon containers. The plan has been so widely embraced that many residents report the need for additional bins or a move to weekly recycling pick-ups. While Watertown administrators express concern that moving to weekly recycling pick-up would erase the savings of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars that is currently afforded the city with the current plan,  there is discussion about allowing residents to purchase additional recycling bins beyond the one provided to them to help fuel the recycling habit.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: The Watertown success story shows that you can be financially savvy and environmentally-aware at the same time. As more and more people want the chance to recycling, cities and towns need to consider opportunities to save money while saving the planet!

When most people think of recycling, blue and green plastic bins come to mind – as well as having to sort paper, plastics, glass, cardboard into different containers. It’s a task that not everyone enjoys doing and as a result, recycling rates can be lower than what they should be. However, the city of Houston, Texas is looking to change that with a new, “one bin” solution – that looks identical to what was done before recycling enter our daily lives.

Under the new proposal, residents would simply but everything together into one bin – waste and recyclables and the sorting would take place at a designated processing facility. The city’s current recycling rate is a low fourteen percent. On issue is that various neighborhoods in the city have different waste collection and recycling services – with some areas no having any curbside pick-up.

The biggest challenge is ensuring that quality, clean recyclables can be saved when mixed in with general waste and refuse. The city collects almost half a million tons of waste, yard scraps, and recyclables from residents. Of the waste collected, city officials believe that half of it is recyclable and should be diverted from landfills.

To fulfill this plan the city is currently applying for private and federal grants as well as looking for business partners.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: There isn’t one set solution to improving recycling rates in your community. It’s important to look at a variety of options and weight their associated costs and benefits.

Public schools in Providence, Rhode Island have boosted their recycling rates by almost twenty percent since September thanks to educational resources from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some good, old-fashioned competition.

Over the summer months, the city’s school administration designed the contest called the School Recycling Challenge, which tracked the success of each the district’s schools in a contest to see which students had the best participation and which building could recycle the most. The winners would receive a trophy and special recognition from Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Since launching the year-long contest, recycling rates have jumped more than seventeen percent with some schools recycling more than four pounds per student. In addition to student participation,  teachers, school staff, and administrators are also active in recycling their waste materials and keeping morale high.

The School Recycling Challenge is part of a citywide recycling campaign which has a goal of increasing recycling throughout Providence.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Who says recycling has to be all stick and no carrot? If you’re looking to increase your school’s or business’  recycling rate, why not try a contest? An incentive can help to start the recycling habit!

In municipalities where trash disposal is provided for residents, it’s typically considered part of the routine taxes that are paid or incorporated into monthly water and sewer bills. However, a trend is growing where individuals are being charged per amount of waste disposed in an effort to increase recycling and re-use rates.

Tulsa, Oklahoma has recently adopted a pay-per-throw systems which charges more to those who throw more into their garbage. Those who reduce their waste output or increase recycling, pay less. The new policy has received favorable responses from those residents wanting to save money and reduce the amount of space needed in regional landfills. While recycling is not required of residents, it certainly contributes to reducing the amount of overall trash.

Prior to the start of the new collection policy, the city had less than fifteen thousand recyclers using city-provided bins. Now, over one hundred thousand residents are recycling and overall tonnage of recyclable material has dramatically increased. The city estimates that it is saving close to four thousand dollars every week in waste disposal fees due to increased recycling activity.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: It’s a plain and simple fact, if your town, business, or home is not making an effort to recycle, then you are walking away from money each trash collection day!

Hospitals and health care centers can save plenty of money each year by increasing recycling efforts and reducing waste. A recent study conducted by the University of Illinois investigated various sustainable practices adopted by health care systems and looked for areas identified as most worthy of adoption across the board for cost savings.

Two of the primary areas were to reduce waste disposal fees through increased recycling efforts and to reduce medical waste through enhanced segregation practices within the facility.

When making a concerted effort to reduce waste, facilities saved on average between fifty cents and two dollars and fifty centers per day per patient. Improving recycling efforts yields great savings with minimal upfront costs. Some of the biggest savings were to be found in ensuring that medical waste, which is more costly to dispose of, be segregated from other forms into of combined into one. Training staff and employees on new disposal practices does take time but can yield significant cost reductions over time.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Medical waste is considered hazardous and needs to be handled in accordance with state and federal regulations. However, not all waste leaving a health care facility is medical. You can save money and help the environment when you recycle suitable material waste!