D.C. started checking and tagging recycling bins last year as a part of a pilot program. This year, the city has expanded it — with a goal to reach about 10% of recycling routes in the District this fall. The idea — and design of these “Oops” tags — comes from a non-profit called The Recycling Partnership. Chris Coady is director of community programs for the group. “For the most part, people want to do the right thing with recycling,” Coady says. “Traditionally, they just haven’t gotten clear, consistent information.”
Coady says cities around the country are trying to clear up confusion, and get residents to pay more attention to what they put in recycling bins. This is due, in large part, to recent changes in the international market for recyclable material: international buyers have gotten a lot pickier. In 2018, China, one of the largest processors of recycling in the world, stopped accepting most material from the U.S. because it’s too contaminated with trash.
“I look at it as a resource that we all produce,” says Coady. All that cardboard, plastic, glass and metal that we put in recycling bins has value; it’s raw material to make new boxes and bottles and jars. But if it’s mixed up with garbage, it’s unusable.
Other jurisdictions in the D.C. region are also trying out curbside recycling inspections, including Montgomery County and the City of Alexandria. “It’s a one-on-one, direct line of communication,” says Helen Lee, environmental program manager for Alexandria’s resource recovery division. The city has already designed its own “Oops” tags, and plans to start using them early next year.
“A lot of municipalities, when they do recycling education and outreach, they might send out a mailer, or a guide to service or put out messages on social media,” says Lee.
These efforts can be easy to ignore for residents — just one more piece of mail to drop in the recycling bin, or tweet to scroll past. But a tag on your recycling bin is personalized and you get the message at the moment you need it — when you’re taking out the recycling.