Recycling Improves Thanks to Eagle Scout
[Rachel Reddick is the Executive Director for REDO, the Recycling Education and Development Organization. In this guest blog post, she celebrates the impact that one Eagle Scout made in his community.]
This summer, Bryce Mayer worked to improve recycling efforts in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Bryce is a Sophomore in High School and chose this for his Eagle Scout Project because he wanted to make a meaningful impact on the environment in his community. He collaborated with REDO and Wasatch Front Waste & Recycling District (WFWRD) to design an educational bin label and plan a community outreach project for the month of August. Together, we hoped to show a measurable improvement in reducing contamination in residential recycling. I’m excited to share that the project was a success!
With the help of about 15 volunteers, we labeled 1,877 recycle bins (approximately 18% of the city) and had 361 conversations in neighborhoods along Fort Union Blvd between S 2300 E and MacIntosh Ln. After about a month of hard work, the results came in: we cut contamination in the targeted neighborhoods from an average of 20% down to 13.75%. That’s the lowest contamination rate recorded in Cottonwood Heights in 2019!
REDO’s team is hoping that this volunteer project can serve as a model for a larger outreach initiative in the future. Face-to-face conversations and updated signage at the bin yielded good results, which our community needs now more than ever.
For more information about how to get involved with REDO, you can email Rachel at info@redoright.org or follow REDO on Facebook.