Public Place Recycling

I've done outdoor festival recycling, sidewalk recycling and parking garage recycling with varied levels of success. Please let me know what information you need.

Marta Keane,
Recycling Program Specialist
Will County Land Use -
Waste Services
58 E. Clinton Street, Suite 500
Joliet, IL 60432
815-774-4343
[email protected]

Hi Karine,

This may be ancillary to your request though an interesting concept in the same space: www.wastewiseevents.resource.nsw.gov.au

Kind regards,
Paul Payten
GEENI Australia

FESTIVAL RECYCLING
In 1992 I began working for municipal government in Illinois. Illinois does not have a bottle bill. We held a couple festivals each year that took place outdoors, over several city blocks. Over a period of two years and about six festivals, I experimented with two types of recycling containers and different placement of recycling containers. For several of the festivals, the contracted waste hauler provided cardboard boxes, lined with plastic bags, about 35 gallons in size. For other festivals we used 55 gallon blue plastic containers that had originally held water-soluble water-treatment chemicals. In both instances, waste containers featured open tops and the recycling containers had lids. The lids of all recycling containers were marked with a recycling symbol and words or pictures of aluminum cans, plastic bottles (glass was accepted, but not sold at the event so it was not formally identified). I also had festival organizers place information in festival brochures that stated that recycling was available or reminded participants to recycle. I found this not only raised awareness, but encouraged some people to look for the recycling containers. I learned that: Periods of high crowds or areas of heavy crowding make it difficult for people to spot both the garbage and recycling container and increased litter. That more recyclables were found in garbage containers that were isolated or far from recycling containers. That more contamination occurred in recycling containers that were isolated, far from garbage containers or had a lid blow off. Marking the sides of the recycling container with a recycling symbol looked good, but didn't translate into any measurable difference in the recycling. I found that the best recycling took place wherever the garbage container was placed immediately beside the garbage container. Over 10 years and numerous festivals, I found additional improvements: Placing a sign on a pole, about 10 feet in the air that had a graphic of a garbage and recycling container aided heavily crowded areas in litter control and increased recycling. Providing cardboard only dumpsters behind the scenes for vendors and then meeting with the festival vendors as a group and/or individually to inform them of cardboard recycling was extremely successful. Requiring vendors to use #2 plastic cups instead of #6 plastic cups allowed cup recycling (simply encouraging the change means that #6 and #2 cups will get mixed together and then I couldn't get them recycled) Publicizing the success of the recycling to the press at the onset of the festival or immediately following it (i.e. "This year's festival will once again feature recycling, last year's 10,000 visitors produced 50,000 lbs of material, of which 15,000 lbs was recycled." Or, "As this year's festival came to an end, clean up of the grounds revealed that the estimated 10,000 visitors and twenty vendors recycled 30% of the waste material generated or 15,000 pounds of containers and cardboard.")

SIDEWALK RECYCLING
In several downtown areas, where pedestrian traffic is high, I have placed recycling containers with varying degrees of success. The most difficult situation to overcome is space constraints. A narrow sidewalk, with a tree doesn't usually have room for a garbage container, let alone a second recycling container. In these cases, I try to find an affordable compartmentalized container. However, these containers can present challenges to the collection crew so they need to be consulted. I found the most success in placing containers of similar size and shape but different color on wide corner areas. I also found that signage placed above them was helpful. However, if there is a lone garbage can in the middle of the block, that will get a high quantity of recyclables as many people jay walk, missing the corner recycling container.

PARKING GARAGE RECYCLING Since people have a tendency to eat and drink in their vehicles, they often have plastic bottles and aluminum cans in the car. They may also have newspaper and other recyclable paper in their vehicles. I only attempted to capture the containers. I placed containers of similar size and shape but different colors near elevator areas and stairwells. I got very little contamination of the recycling and most of the recyclables were not placed in the garbage - I never did actual weight or volume recordings, just visual inspections. I didn't place any "lone" garbage containers elsewhere.

Marta Keane,
Recycling Program Specialist
Will County Land Use - Waste Services
58 E. Clinton Street, Suite 500
Joliet, IL 60432
815-774-4343
[email protected]