Game raises awareness about recycling contamination

In celebration of the 20th annual America Recycles Day, Recycling Perks, the recycling incentive and strategic outreach company based in Norfolk, Virginia, involved adults and children in Norfolk, as well as in several Florida and Virginia cities the company serves, in a game to test their knowledge of recycling contaminants.

America Recycles Day was created in 1997 to encourage Americans to commit to recycling. Recycling Perks, which has been providing recycling education and incentives to many cities since 2010, says this day is another opportunity to speak with residents about the importance of recycling.

Recycling Perks has two goals: to get more people to recycle and to involve communities in making their cities greener. The company’s latest national campaign, the America Recycles Day Anti-Contamination Game, addresses both goals, Recycling Perks says, by involving the community and encouraging more people to recycle by helping them to be more confident in their recycling abilities.

Many residents gathered in Recycling Perks’ service areas and were asked a trick question about the recyclability of plastic bags. While plastic bags can be recycled at local grocery stores, they cannot be recycled in most curbside recycling programs. This confusion was a perfect example of why Recycling Perks focuses on continued recycling education in the community, the company says.

Recycling Perks says the campaign was successful in bolstering the confidence of the residents who participated, and the video, available at https://youtu.be/S2z_y24fgSs, will help educate more people.

Recycling Perks is an incentive and outreach program that uses targeted data analysis to create meaningful reports and maps that empower cities to recycle better. Cities who contact the company before Dec. 1, 2017, could win free data mapping.