The City of Roanoke’s Solid Waste Division, Office of Sustainability, and Recycling Disposal Solutions (RDS) will pilot a program in the Belmont-Fallon neighborhood to increase recycling knowledge and decrease recycling contamination. The Recycle Right Pilot Program is a recycling contamination reduction effort modeled after The Recycling Partnership’s successful and effective ‘Feet on the Street Program’ to improve the recycling system in our community.
The program combines recycling education and recycling inspection at the curb to help drive positive behavior change and improve people’s understanding of what to recycle and what causes contamination. It will also help ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the recycling system while reducing costs for the city and taxpayers.
Recycling can be confusing, so the City of Roanoke wants to provide hands-on information on how to recycle right so that we can help our residents, our city, and our environment. The Recycling Partnership has worked with many communities around the country and found that cart tagging and rejection are 2x more effective than education alone in reducing contamination.