by Eagle Tribune
The Lawrence Department of Public Works is launching its first year of a 10-week program “Recycling IQ Kit,” starting this month and running into the fall. The program's goal is to increase the quality of recycling collected curbside by raising the “Recycling IQ” of the residents using the city's recycling program.
A team of summer workers have been hired and they will work from July through September to implement a curbside feedback program that will target an additional 2,000 households on every recycling collection route in the city this year.
Lorena Salazar, Lawrence’s Recycling Coordinator, explained the program: “As part of the Recycling IQ Kit program, we will be lifting the lids of well over 2,000 recycling containers on a daily basis. If we find a large amount of plastic bags, trash, food or other things that don’t belong in the recycling cart, we will be tagging those carts with an “Oops Tag” that will signal to E.L Harvey to not pick up the bins. Residents whose carts get tagged will need to clean up the cart by getting rid of the offending material and then putting it out properly on their next recycling pick up day.
Those same carts will be checked 10 times this summer, he said, allowing enough time for the behavior modification of recycling right to take effect.
In addition, this year the city will be spot checking carts throughout Lawrence and running more in depth checks on the routes worked last year during the pilot, as part of a reinforcement effort, and to collect data on which areas have higher levels of contamination.