Palm Beach County and ABA

Public Space Recycling Pilot Project

Project Goals

Measure and improve public space recycling performance

Create an effective, attractive, and sustainable recycling system for beverage containers generated in each host jurisdiction

Create opportunities for the public to manage their beverage containers to reduce the amount of litter

Identify and demonstrate the use of functional and aesthetically pleasing recycling receptacles

Increase public awareness of the opportunities and convenience of recycling in the host jurisdiction(s)

Participants: 5 Palm Beach Municipalities and County SWA

Jurisdiction/ Service Provider

Bin Types

Lake Park/Lake Park Witt Stadium

North Palm Beach/ North Palm Beach

Witt Metal Slat

Delray Beach/ Waste Management

Witt Metal Slat

Rubbermaid

Wellington/ Waste Management

Witt Metal Slat

West Palm Beach/ West Palm Beach (trash); Waste Mgt. (recycling)

Witt Metal Slat

Recycling Bin Locations

Pre Start Waste Audit

Project Hard Launch: America Recycles Day – Thursday, Nov. 15th

Delray Beach: Kick-off event on the Beach Wellington: Booth and containers at Food Truck

Rodeo West Palm Beach: Kick-off event in Northwood

Village – Art and Wine Promenade (Last Friday in November)

Ongoing Promotion

SWA booth at fairgrounds during the fair SWA website SWA public service announcements Available for your use: draft articles for

newsletters, and text for use on your websites, and social media pages

Poster – available in electronic format for printing

Post Start Audit

Change in Percentage of Beverage Containers in Waste

Beverage Containers in Recycling Bins

Change in Beverage Containers in Waste– by City

PET Bev Bottles

Alum Bev Cans

Glass Bev Bottles

Paper Bev Cartons

Delray Beach -48% -66% -43% -62%

Lake Park -74% 290% -29% -77%

North Palm Beach -33% -65% -80% 58%

Wellington -69% -66% -72% 46%

West Palm Beach -18% -57% -34% -80%

All Cities -53% -48% -53% -47%

Composition of Material in Recycling Bins

Composition and Change in Composition of Litter – Pre-Pilot vs. Pilot

Pre-Pilot(# items)

Percentageof Total Items

Pilot (# items)

Percentageof Total Items

Percent Change

Beverage Containers

  

 

PET Bottles 38 6.2% 8 3.4% -46%Aluminum Cans 25 4.1% 1 0.4% -90%HDPE Bottles 5 0.8% 2 0.8% 3%Glass Bottles 4 0.7% 2 0.8% 29%Paper Cartons 4 0.7%   0.0% -100%Other Plastic Bottles 4 0.7% 10 4.2% 543%Pouches 3 0.5% 2 0.8% 71%Steel Cans 2 0.3%   0.0% -100%Other Materials    Film Plastic 119 19.4% 72 30.3% 56%Paper Plates & Napkins 57 9.3% 40 16.8% 80%Rigid Plastic Containers 56 9.2% 9 3.8% -59%Other Plastic Packaging 53 8.7% 35 14.7% 70%Other Materials 242 39.5% 57 23.9% -39%Total 612 100.0% 238 100.0%

Beverage Containers in Litter

Pre-Pilot Litter Composition Litter Composition during Pilot

Seeking Your Input

Containers – size, functionality, durability?

Container locations? Contamination? Litter? Scavenging? Container servicing – frequency, cost? Community feedback? What would you do differently?

Key Learnings (as observed, and reported by operations staff)

Many people recycle when given opportunity – particularly in parks and beaches.

Streetside receptacles don’t gather beverage containers to the extent as do those in parks and marinas.

There are a lot of glass bottles in the recycling stream. Aluminum cans may also be higher than reflected due to

removal by scavengers particularly in West Palm Beach sites. Both waste and recycling containers need to be twinned and

tethered. Labels don’t stick well to Rubbermaid bins and lids break, but

otherwise all containers did their job and were well received. Both waste and recycling containers need to be serviced

regularly or they both collect trash and cause increased litter.

Key Learnings (as observed, and reported by operations staff) Labels did their job of differentiating the recycling receptacles from waste

receptacles. Colors were attractive. Text could be simplified. Recycling receptacles were well received and used regularly except for the

street side containers in both Delray Beach and some of those in Northwood Village.

North Palm Beach and Lake Park saw less bottles and cans and litter in general after the program start.  Trash volume was now also notably lower.

All communities noted that feedback from the public has been favorable.  Northwood Village however did get some requests for the containers to be serviced more frequently, which prompted a change in servicing.

Ideas for future – do more promotion of the program earlier; get local business support for the containers located near their storefronts; tether containers to the ground.

Some of the reps discussed that they had learned what works now and will relocate a few bins to other areas where they feel they will get more material and in West Palm Beach’s case, less scavenging.

All of the communities want to expand their programs. Other communities have expressed an interest in starting their own programs.