Baton Rouge Recycling Campaign Exceeds Expectations

Last November, Baton Rouge, La., Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden asked residents to increase their curbside recycling efforts. Each household responded by recycling an average of more than 3.5 pounds, causing a 16.4 percent increase in overall recycling collected.

Since switching to a single-stream program in early 2006, the city had experienced a significant increase in recycling (35 percent), but still wasn’t close to its overall goal of raising recycling by 50 percent. The city of Baton Rouge/parish of East Baton Rouge partnered with the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) to launch a new education campaign to ramp up recycling. A campaign was developed called “Cart IT! Create a Recycling Tradition in Baton Rouge” under the assumption that most residents were aware of the new 64-gallon recycling program and many already had carts. The primary goal was to encourage residents to more diligently recycle.

After the campaign was officially launched in early November, data from the local materials recovery facility, The Recycling Foundation, was reviewed and compared to data from 2005, before the switch to single stream as well as in 2006, the first year of the single-stream program. Not only did the city see a 16.4 percent increase in recycling during the last year, but it also exceeded the goal in switching to single stream by experiencing a 51.4 percent increase in overall recycling tons from prior to the switch.

“Baton Rouge is delighted by the Cart It! campaign and its results,” said Susan Hamilton, Recycling Director, Department of Public Works for the city of Baton Rouge/parish of East Baton Rouge. “What the data doesn’t really show, however, is all of the positive feedback we’ve received from the community about this campaign. We really were able to develop a brand that speaks to this city.”

Steve Thompson, CVP program director, says, “CVP was honored to work with Baton Rouge but frankly we were nervous. The bar was already set high. Susan and her team had won the National Recycling Coalition’s Public Education Campaign of the Year surrounding their initial education when switching to single stream. We knew this education campaign truly had to be special and tailored for the residents.” 

The Cart It! campaign included billboards; bus shelters; library displays; a combination of paid and free PSAs in local newspaper, radio and TV media outlets; earned media coverage and a wide variety of community outreach.

Officially unveiled in October 2005 at the National Recycling Congress, the national CVP program is currently funded by members of the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturer’s Institute. Current CVP partner communities include the state of Georgia as well as Arlington County, Va.; Brevard County, Fla.; Burlington County, N.J.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Indian River, Fla.; Lancaster and York Counties in Pennsylvania., Mecklenburg County, N.C.; Omaha, Neb.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Orlando, Fla.. More information is available at www.RecycleCurbside.org.