Reducing Recycling Contamination through Education and Outreach

[Dr. Dumas supervised grad student Haley Moccia during the production of the attached report.]

Abstract: This report focuses on identifying public education and outreach programs that the City of Wilmington, North Carolina, can easily implement to reduce recycling contamination. Recycling contamination occurs when non-recyclable materials, such as plastic bags, occurs in the recycling stream. Material recovery facilities (MRFs)—recycling centers with industrial machinery that sorts recycled materials—frequently encounter contamination that impacts the ability of MRFs to sort and sell the recycled materials to companies that buy post-consumer recyclable materials. Many methods have been implemented in efforts combat contamination, including: cart tagging programs, mailed educational materials, social media campaigns, and violation fees. This report investigates each of these methods to determine the best method to reduce contamination, reviews ways to influence consumer recycling behavior, and provides information about recycling resources and contacts. [A separate electronic folder accompanies this report. This folder contains additional materials that were compiled from interviews or downloaded from recycling resources. Many toolkits and infographics are included in the folder because they have the potential to be useful to the City of Wilmington. The folder is named COW_RecyclingInformation.]

Reducing Recycling Contamination through Education and Outreach Report