Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator, Modern Recycling
- Model City, New York
- United States
Topics
7 Comments
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Office Service Ware Best Practices
2014-03-28 00:06:42 UTC
Hi All! I'm working with a local healthcare system that is moving several offices into one building and taking advantage of this as an opportunity to work toward culture change for more sustainable behaviors. My colleague and I are working with them to plan their recycling program. They're seeking advice about best practices with regards to service ware.
They'll have kitchenette areas for employees who bring lunch and for mini-celebrations like birthdays, etc. They don't want to use plastic forks and other disposable service ware because of the waste, but they're concerned that if they stock reusable items, they'll have greater long-term expense because some will inevitably go missing and need to be re-stocked and they have to deal with the issue of people not washing their dirty dishes in a timely fashion. I thought maybe a 'welcome to the new building' gift of a travel cutlery set so everyone would have cutlery and if they lost their gift set then they would have to bring their own from home. But for birthday parties and such, you'd have groups of people all needing the sink to do their dishes at the same time.
They won't have a post-consumer organics diversion program in their kitchenettes.
I'd love for you to share your thoughts and experiences with this issue.
Thanks,
Katy
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
www.moderncorporation.com -
Re: PAYT - Cart Size for Recycling & Green Waste
2013-01-10 09:47:32 UTC
The person below has done considerable research about PAYT in the United States. She presented in a USA Environmental Protection Agency webinar and I think she's a very good resource. If you google her name with pay as you throw, you should find some of her articles in the results.
Lisa A. Skumatz, Ph.D.
Skumatz Economic Research Associates, Inc.
1511 Third Avenue, Suite 1000
Seattle, Washington 98101
Voice: 206/624-8508
FAX: 206/624-2950
Email: skumatz @ serainc.com
I can offer circumstantial evidence from my area. Many municipalities in the Buffalo Niagara region of the US have been implementing cart-based programs for recycling. They often only offer the 65 gallon size to start, but some allow residents to switch to a different size later. This makes initial cart roll-out much easier. The municipalities that let residents know from the beginning that there will be opportunity to switch later tend to have less push-back from residents. Older people often have trouble handling the size of a 65 gallon cart and don't need that much capacity - it could take them a month to fill up a cart that size. On the other hand, I hear of families with kids at home that fill a 95 gallon cart every week, or at least more often than every other week which is how most municipalities in our region structure their programs.
Most of our area isn't using a PAYT system - I wish they did, but most just switched to carts for the recycling. If the muni is concerned about spending too much or storing too many different sizes, they should offer more flexibility for recycling to encourage that and not offer the largest size for trash to discourage that. The other thing we've done is keep the cart color for all the carts the same and just used different color lids. This makes inventory control much easier and saves money because when one household returns a 95 gallon trash cart they no longer need because thy are recycling so much it can easily become a recycling cart for another family that has more than average recycling.
Katy
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
www.moderncorporation.com -
Re: Recycling Indifference in Multi Residential Buildings
2012-12-24 11:25:02 UTC
I echo the show of appreciation to Ruben and others for your thoughtful and information-packed responses. Very helpful. I also have evidence, though not so scientifically gathered, to support Ruben's argument for providing sufficient infrastructure.
I'm in the Buffalo Niagara region of New York, U.S.A. Two of the larger municipalities decided to switch to carts/totes from bins and it was successful for all involved. Now our smaller municipalities are also switching. For the municipalities that we service, we've seen increased recycling rates in communities that make that switch. City of Buffalo also increased recycling rates with a switch to totes. This is primarily single family, but I imagine if we looked specifically at multi-family we'd see the same response.
Many of our municipalities switch to every other week recycling when adding the totes. This requires sending at least an annual flier to remind them of their recycling week and we also include the recycling menu of acceptable/not acceptable items. So some of that increase probably comes from people not being aware of certain materials we now accept for recycling that we didn't a few years ago.
I sat in a meeting with the Town Supervisor for one of the larger towns that we service and he said when his recycling bin fills up, the rest of the recycling goes in the trash. He knew he should recycle it (he's both a doctor and a lawyer, so well-educated), but he had gotten to that point Ruben described - it was just too inconvenient to do the right thing. This situation, which he assumed was true for many others, was his motivation for changing to totes. I was surprised at his response to a full bin, and his candor about it, but I'm learning that this type of response is quite common.
Sometimes we get grumbling about the size of totes and space they take up, but once implemented people are generally pleased. They are also easier to get to the collection point since you wheel the material instead of carry it, which is helpful for senior citizens and people who have a lot of paper.
Katy
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
www.moderncorporation.com -
Re: Compostable Serviceware Requirements for Event Food Vendors
2012-09-10 12:39:18 UTC
Thanks! I definitely got some new ideas from your post and more good evidence for some ideas we wanted to implement but couldn't this year due to timing.
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
www.moderncorporation.com -
Compostable Serviceware Requirements for Event Food Vendors
2012-08-16 17:23:48 UTC
We recently provided recycling and compostables collection for a local arts festival. To improve the program next year, the Arts Council will include requirements for the food vendors to purchase compostable and recyclable serviceware (we didn't have the opportunity to do that ahead this year). I'd love to see samples of this kind of contract language or recommendations from those of you who have done something similar in the past.
Also, from a behavior change approach, have you found it better to require compostable cups or recyclable cups? People all know bottles & cans go in the recycling, but even though we asked for plastic cups in the recycling, we got plastic, paper and foam cups in all three containers - trash, recycling, composting. Given the recent discussion thread on this blog about event signage, I'd like to get the vendors to standardize so it will be easier for attendees.
I look forward to your experienced insights! Thanks.
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
www.moderncorporation.com -
Re: Large Scale School Recycling Program
2012-08-08 09:51:27 UTC
Keep America Beautiful has an annual school recycling competition that could fit with your goals. Info here: www.recycle-bowl.org
Check with the hauler/service provider who will be accepting your recyclable materials. They may be willing to kick in some prizes as incentives for the students and staff too.
You might be able to get some teachers to work with kids to make short (30-60 second) videos to air on morning announcements to get kids fired up and talking about it. Kids like doing videos, they can practice and tape it in one take with technology many kids already have, and kids respond better to things other kids tell them they should do than things adults tell them thye should do. ie. Use peer pressure in your favor.
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States -
Re: Environmental Benefits Equivalent for Avoided Energy Costs
2012-01-13 12:10:28 UTC
EPA now has a widget, based off the WARM model, that can go right up on your webpage.
Web address: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/iwarm/widgets/
You pick a recyclable and then an appliance and it will give you the number of hours you can run the appliance if you recycle a certain amount of the recyclable material. I found it a little confusing at first because it puts up an X when you pick an item and doesn't say you need to pick an appliance, so at first I thought it wasn't working. If you post it with simple directions, it can be useful. Meg, you can use it right on the website to get stats you can then put in your letter.
Katy Duggan-Haas
Sustainability Program Coordinator
Modern Recycling
United States
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