Greensboro residents will soon receive personalized feedback to help them recycle correctly. Building on previous cart audit campaigns – which reduced recycling contamination by 30 percent in three years, the City of Greensboro is using a mobile audit tool powered by Prairie Robotics to identify recycling trends and provide custom-designed educational materials to residents.
Auditors in the field will use the mobile auditing device to identify and photograph contamination in recycling carts. The system will generate an educational postcard with a photo of the contamination and information about what items are not recyclable under Greensboro’s program. The postcard will be automatically mailed to the residence.
The new personalized feedback is part of an ongoing effort to help reduce the amount of nonrecyclable materials that make it into the City’s recycling collection. In 2022, some 25 percent of materials put in recycling carts were not recyclable under the City program. Auditing will continue throughout the year in different neighborhoods.