Educating residents about reduce, reuse, and recycle principles will advance this objective in several ways. One of our priorities in Durham is reducing the amount of contaminants and trash in our recycling collections. Currently, a significant portion of our recycling collections contains materials that cannot be recycled, which can reduce the value and effective sorting of truly recyclable material, requires unnecessary transportation of the materials to the processor, where those materials need then to be separated out and discarded.  Some contaminants such as plastic bags and other “tanglers” can even cause damage to processing equipment.  This ultimately costs the City money and undermines the relationship to the recycling processor. Furthermore, education will help residents understand the value and importance of the reduction and reuse components of waste diversion, which, when combined with recycling,  can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, prevent pollution by reducing the reliance on natural materials, save energy, help sustain the environment for future generations, reduce the amount of waste that will need to be recycled or sent to landfills, allows products to be used to their fullest extent, and saves money. 

Recycle Right Media Campaign. Fall/Winter Spectrum Commercial production and broadcast with the NCCU. 

Recycle Right Media Campaign. Development of Spring Spectrum Commercial Campaign. 

Design phase of educational recycling graphics on trucks, to coincide with the Recycle Right campaign. 

We had a meeting with our new recycling processor to discuss improving the quality of recycling. We are in the process of scheduling direct-to-MRF recycle deliveries for our vendor to analyze the materials.