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These days, contamination enforcement is all over the media—and rightly so. It’s a sticky issue. When it comes to getting people to adopt the right recycling behaviors, the last thing you want to do is alienate them. Unfortunately, contamination enforcement can do just that. Even worse, it can discourage residents from recycling altogether.   

Today, we’re going to look at how some communities are approaching contamination enforcement and whether or not their campaigns have proven successful.

Everybody’s talking about digital transformation, and rightfully so. Governments everywhere, from the UK to New York City have already formalized their digital transformation plans. Not to be outdone, small towns are also getting in on the fun.

This is all to say that digital transformation is more than a buzzword. It’s happening right now in communities across the planet, changing the way governments operate and deliver services to their residents.

We’re exposed to more information in one day than someone would have been over the course of their entire life in the 15^th century. Granted, the medieval mind didn’t exactly have a lot of things to focus on: the plague, tending the crops, the plague, harvesting the crops… you catch the drift.

It’s no wonder we’ve become so selective about what we pay attention to and what we choose to ignore. There’s just way too much information floating around out there. Naturally, this makes it harder to communicate. For one, you’re competing for your residents’ attention. Not only that, but because they’re so overwhelmed with information, they’ve become far more selective about what they’ll engage with.

Getting your recycling program to achieve peak performance is no small feat. If you’re already there, kudos (also, what’s your secret… seriously?).

The struggle is real. Whether you’re fighting an uphill battle against recycling apathy in your community, struggling to hit your diversion rate targets, or looking for creative ways to do more with less, there’s no shortage of hurdles stopping you from hitting your goals. Sadly, there’s a shortage of good solutions, and there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all fix.

In our last article on surviving the China Ban, we identified the biggest recycling issue facing communities across the country: contamination.

This week, let’s look at ways you can confront contamination head on, whether it’s implementing recycling communication tools that can help your community right now, promoting organizations that can complement your efforts in the community, or exposing your residents to third-party sources of recycling information to keep them informed.

So here it is, everything you need to know.

If you want more residents to recycle, you need to understand what’s stopping them. Recent numbers put Canadian and American recycling rates at 27% and 34.6% respectively. Not terrible. But not great, either. Especially when you consider Germany's impressive rate of 56.1%.  

Which is to say: more of us need to recycle, and more often.

To make that happen, let’s take a quick look at the three big reasons your residents aren’t recycling.