4 Components of a Successful Outdoor Recycling Program

Two barriers frequently prevent people from recycling outdoors. The first is it’s not convenient for them. The recycling bins aren’t where they need them most, and they don’t know where to find them. In this situation, many people give up and throw their recyclables in the trash.

When outdoor recycling bins are visible in high-traffic areas, there’s still a potential obstacle. It’s not clear what people should do. Labeling is confusing or missing. As a result, people either don’t try to recycle or put their waste in the wrong bins (cross-contamination). 

A successful outdoor recycling program has components that remove these obstacles. Also, these programs include an intentional strategy to build on past success. Below are four components of outdoor recycling for a successful program.

1. Well-Thought Bin Placement

Intentional bin placement involves more than putting recycling bins in obvious places like high-traffic areas or near vending machines. Recycling bins that are not next to a trash receptacle often become contaminated with landfill waste. Pairing recycling bins with trash bins reduces the problem. Multi-stream recycling stations can lower levels of contamination too.

2. The Right Type of Bins

Carefully choosing your recycling bins can increase the chances of a program’s success. Features to consider include color, lid type, and capacity. Since many people associate blue with recycling, blue receptacles are easily recognizable as recycling bins rather than landfill bins. Restrictive lids such as a round opening for cans or a slot for paper can also lower contamination rates.

Outdoor bins need to be large enough that they don’t over-fill between collection times. Also, using uniform bins throughout the space prevents user confusion.

3. Education

Another component of outdoor recycling is education. Users need clear messaging to get their waste in the correct receptacles. It’s helpful to put simple labels near the bin opening, with words that are familiar to the average user. Also, pictures are ideal for outdoor environments frequented by multi-lingual users, such as airport parking lots.

4. Program Monitoring

Organizations have to monitor their programs and are willing to make changes based on their observations. For example, overflowing bins may require more frequent intervals between collections or a need to increase the number of bins.