The City of Akron in partnership with Keep Akron Beautiful, is conducting the next round of the Recycle Right campaign in Akron. Theâ¯Recycle Rightâ¯campaign is a community-wide initiative to improve the quality of recycling in curbside carts by providing residents personalized and real-time curbside recycling education and feedback.â¯â¶Ä¯â¶Ä¯Ìý
The initiativeârunning Monday, June 23 through Friday, August 15âwill again include mobilizing specially-trained personnel to conduct curbside cart observations.⯠Residents who have contaminants (non-recyclables) in their recycling carts will receive informational âOopsâ tags on their carts with direct feedback designed to improve recycling cart contents (example available ).⯠Recycling carts found to contain contaminants such as trash and other non-recyclable items will not be emptied.⯠Instead, residents will be given the opportunity to correct the mistake and return the cart to the curb the following week.â¯â¶Ä¯Ìý
âIâm proud to once again bring the Recycle Right campaign to Akron in partnership with Keep Akron Beautiful,â said Mayor Shammas Malik. âEach year, this campaign helps educate our residents on what items belong in their recycling carts, and itâs helping us keep our program sustainable for our city and our environment.ââ¯ÌýBefore the city began the Recycle Right campaign in 2019, the contamination rate of Akron’s recyclables was nearly 40%, which is high. It meant 40% of what residents were putting in their curbside recycling carts was not actually recyclable in Akron. This rate cost the city over $200,000 in contamination costs and put Akronâs entire recycling program in jeopardy.ÌýÌý
Thatâs when the city implemented the Recycle Right campaign with Keep Akron Beautiful which had a significant impact. Then in 2023, Akron further improved recycling efforts by implementing a glass drop off program to allow residents to recycle glass in a way that wouldnât contaminate the curbside recycling stream. In the first year of that program, at least 80 tons of glass were collected.⯠Together, the Recycle Right campaign combined with the efforts of city sanitation employees and the glass drop-off program have transformed Akronâs recycling for the better. Last year, recycling audits confirmed the cityâs contamination rate had fallen to about 12%. Now, instead of costing the city money, the recycling program creates revenue â more than $56,000 last year.Ìý
âThe cleaner our recycling stream, the more sustainable the program will be,â said Keep Akron Beautiful CEO Jacqui Ricchiuti. âWeâre so excited by our low contamination rate and we want to keep the Recycle Right program as a shining example nationwide about how these types of educational campaigns can work to create real, sustainable change in communities like Akron.ââ¯â¶Ä¯Ìý
