The State of Minnesota is asking residents to Recycle MORE through a statewide initiative that began on Earth Day to increase residential recycling awareness and participation in the state’s 87 counties. Through a partnership between the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) the campaign will utilize educational and advertising materials distributed at the statewide level. Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) will work more closely with three communities: St. Louis County, McLeod County and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, which represents the city of Duluth to help drive the statewide campaign to residents within these communities.
“We applaud Minnesota’s efforts for creating a compelling, research driven statewide education effort,” said Steve Thompson, director of CVP. “We are looking forward to working with the three communities to gauge the impact of added localization.”
Minnesota joins a growing list of CVP communities, an invitation-only program where the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturer’s Institute as well as their funding members, including Alcoa, Anheuser-Busch Metal Container, ARCO, Ball, Novelis and REXAM collaborate with communities to help them improve participation and collection in local curbside programs. Programs that are selected are then promoted nationally as best practices and serve as examples to other communities.
“We are pleased to say that Minnesota is making great strides to attain our goal of a 50 percent recycling rate,” said MPCA Commissioner Brad Moore. “But we still have a long way to go to encourage residents and businesses to become diligent recyclers. Minnesota has long been at the forefront of the green revolution. It is our hope that the partnership with CVP will help us uncover new ways to motivate all Minnesotans and encourage them to make the connection between recycling and protecting the environment.”
The CVP partnership will rely on materials created for the Recycle MORE Minnesota campaign. The Recycle MORE Minnesota campaign involves a statewide education and social marketing effort, including a movie theatre promotion, radio PSA’s, and multi-media toolkit of materials for local communities to utilize. CVP will work with the three communities to help tailor the toolkit materials and test their effectiveness in addition to the overall statewide efforts.
The state of Minnesota was selected to join CVP because of the strength of its statewide education campaign and leadership in recycling.
About the Curbside Value Partnership:
Created five years ago, the national CVP program is currently funded by members of the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturer’s Institute. CVP is the only current, national program that engages communities, haulers, material recovery facilities (MRFs) and other stakeholders to identify solutions to improving curbside recycling programs through education. CVP activities benefit communities and industry, driving more recycled materials into mills across the country benefiting the fiber, glass, steel, plastic and aluminum industries. CVP’s goal is to launch and study education programs to increase participation in local curbside recycling programs and make programs more profitable and sustainable. CVP partner communities include the states of Georgia and Minnesota as well as Arlington County, Va.; Brevard County, Fla.; Burlington County, N.J.; Denver, Colo.; Kansas City, Mo.; Indian River, Fla.; Lancaster and York Counties in Penn., Mecklenburg County, N.C. Omaha, Neb.; Baton Rouge, LA, and Orlando, Fla.. For more information, visit www.RecycleCurbside.org.