The City of Longmont was one of three Front Range cities selected to participate in a six-month recycling education campaign in collaboration with Recycle Colorado and funded by a grant provided by the Coca Cola Foundation. The campaign, which officially began in August 2020, intends to increase recycling collection with-in the city and throughout the state. Commerce City and Thornton were the two other communities selected for this campaign.
“This is a great opportunity to work alongside one of Colorado’s leaders in recycling, Recycle Colorado, and develop innovative approaches for outreach and education,” Charles Kamenides, City of Longmont Waste Services Manager, said. The campaign includes advertising billboards in both English and Spanish that were developed and installed on several bus shelters across Longmont and a video created and filmed in Longmont. Targeted information is also displayed through Google search results, third-party websites and City publications to reach as much of our community as possible.
Each month focuses on a different topic, such as how recycled materials are transformed into new products and how the simple act of recycling can help create nine times more jobs than landfilling would. “The question we are working to solve is, ‘how can we motivate residents to recycle more?’” said Laura Levesque, Programs Director at Recycle Colorado.
“One popular hypothesis is that consistent visual reminders could prompt us to re-cycle more and recycle better.” Kamenides stresses the importance of “recycling it right,” using tips from the City’s Single Stream Recycling Guide at www.long-montcolorado.gov/home/showpublisheddocument?id=17327. He also encourages residents to reference useful recycling tools such as the Waste Wizard, the on-line collection schedule and the Waste Services Mobile App – available on both the App Store and Google Play. “Longmont is one of the top five recycling communities in Colorado, but let’s not stop there,” Kamenides said. “Every little bit helps.”