National Recycling Month 2023 – See What Our Customers Are Doing
November is National Recycling Month! Earlier this month we celebrated World Paper Free Day & America Recycles Day – check them out!
The benefits of recycling are endless. When we recycle instead of simply throwing everything away, we conserve resources that can be used again and again.
As Recycle Across America puts it, “Without exception, recycling is the top action society can do to simultaneously improve: the environment, the economy, sustainable manufacturing and to prevent waste from going into oceans.”
How does Routeware fit in?
With our purpose built web and mobile app tools, we’ve reminded people to take out the trash and recycling over a billion times, which means more waste diversion, happier recyclers, and cleaner communities. With powerful digital tools for outreach and education, cities and haulers are providing better service and creating positive environmental outcomes
And learn more about our customers below!
Municipalities
The Town of Cary, NC Won a Carolina Recycling Association’s Annual Recycling Award for their work with our tools, after seeing a 3% decrease in contamination rate within six months of adoption.
⭐ Sunnyvale, CA digitized 100 Special Collection Requests weekly, met the requirements of SB 1383, saw bulky item requests increased 64.34% while call volume decreased 3.56% from 2017 to 2020, and are marching towards meeting their 2030 Zero Waste goal.
⭐ Within months, Nashville, TN saw a 46% contamination rate reduced to 28.6%.
🏅 Denton, Texas won this year’s small community Resource Recycling Program of the Year Award for pushing progress in data collection, resident outreach and more.
🧙 The City of Methuen, MA is Making Progress in their Recycling Program. The City adopted our Waste Wizard educational tool last year, and has seen progress ever since.
📺 Masey DeMoss – Waste Reduction and Recycling Educator with the City of Greensboro, North Carolina – was recently on WFMY News 2 to share the rules of recycling in Greensboro. The tool highlighted? Routeware’s Waste Sorting Game.
📰 City of Cambridge, MA Department of Public Works was recently featured in WasteAdvantage magazine. We are proud to see the success that our long-time customer is having with organics, mattress, and textile recycling.
2023 SE Recycling Champions include:
♻️ Orange County, NC won the public recycling division for their Recycling Stars Program
♻️ Single Stream Recyclers in Sarasota, FL won the industry division for their MRF
Sarasota and Orange County are both users of our Community products, and we are very proud to see the fantastic impact they’ve been able to make in their communities.
Authorities
♻️ The Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC) saw a 50% decrease in recycling contamination alongside an increase in recycling education & engagement.
Waste Haulers
👀 El Paso recycling improves under new operator (and Routeware customer) Waste Connections. The city’s contamination rate has fallen from 34% in 2021 to 23% in 2023, an 11% decrease!
Campus
🎉 Towson University in Maryland was awarded as an Education and Awareness Winner of the 2023 Campus Race to Zero Waste!
Army Bases
🪖 Fort Hood Army Base is “the U.S. Army leader in recycling,” The Recycler reports. With help from its digital tools, Fort Hood’s recycling program works to educate soldiers and civilians alike about ways to collaborate for “a greener future,” using $89,000 in recycling revenue to sponsor 32 soldier and family events.
However, it’s not all good news this National Recycling Month. Recycling is struggling in America due to public confusion about recycling. Quick facts:
- U.S. recycling levels are currently 21.4% (recent EPA funded Yale University Study)
- When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will be the environmental and CO2 equivalent of removing 55 million cars from U.S. roads each year.
- When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will generate 1.5 million new jobs in the U.S.
- Manufacturers truly want these materials back to reuse in their manufacturing, but they aren’t able to reuse the materials if people don’t recycle right.
Despite the best efforts of our customers, there’s still much waste out there in the world, waste that can be reduced and recycled utilizing educational tools and digital solutions.
Start your journey to better recycling today and help reduce the amount of waste worldwide – all while helping optimize your waste operation.
P.S. Here are some plastic recycling & waste facts:
