We recently partnered with the City of Lake Forest to create an educational campaign aimed at reducing recycling contamination by residents, students and workers.
The Lake Forest Garden Club, a longtime collaborator with the City of Lake Forest, provided a community grant totaling $110,000 to reduce recycling waste from the current 25 percent to 10 percent, thereby reducing the City’s recycling process costs by 25% per ton which equates to an annual savings of up to $50,000.
Our new campaign "Rethink Recycling" kicked off this Spring and features a friendly animated character named Bart the Cart — a recycling expert designed to connect with and keep involved recyclers of all ages. Bart’s recycling guidelines are available at www.bartthecart.com and on stickers placed on the underside of residential and commercial recycling bin lids. Bart and his recycling tips will also be visible throughout the community via events and outdoor promotional posters.
Bart’s campaign is organized into four basic guidelines: Empty and Clean, No Plastic Bags, No Styrofoam and No Tanglers. According to Bart, by following these guidelines, Lake Forest residents can make a direct impact on lowering recycling costs.
Given our company commitment to being environmentally and sustainably responsible, we were simply thrilled to be part of the team and are happy to know that while recycling volume is going up (due to COVID-19), contamination percentage is dropping!