Waste Management Northwest conducts outreach program at apartment buildings

KCTS 9, Seattle, reports that Waste Management Northwest is sending interns to apartment complexes in Seattle to conduct a recycling canvassing program.  

“Waste Management started this program four years ago in order to communicate with the community on a level that we felt would be very impactful,” Hannah Scholes, Waste Management’s education and outreach coordinator, says in the article. “We go out to 11 different cities throughout the Puget Sound, so it’s a jampacked summer.” 

According to the article, Waste Management collates curbside collection data to determine what demographics most need educated about recycling. In the Puget Sound, residents of apartment complexes collect for recycling around 20 percent of their waste, as opposed to the 60 percent of single-family homes. Possible reasons include inadequate access to recycling facilities and the transient nature of multifamily homes, the article says.

“I think that face-to-face interaction is necessary,” Audrey Taber, one of the interns involved in the canvassing program, says in the article. “It’s kind of like we’re holding them accountable in a way. They see that somebody cares if they’re recycling or not.” 

Waste Management estimates their interns have influenced a 7-million-pound increase in recycling since they began the canvassing program.