Republic Services, City of Norman to host recycling contest
Mar. 3—Residents who regularly recycle have the opportunity to be rewarded for their efforts this month.
Starting next week, Republic Services and the City of Norman are launching a super recyclers contest to reward proper recycling habits. The contest will select 100 residents each week for the next four weeks to receive a $25 gift certificate to a local business or restaurant.
By the end of the contest, Republic Services will give out $10,000 in gift certificates to 400 residents.
"The City of Norman [residents] are outstanding recyclers and they always have been," Crystal Bennet, Republic Services spokesperson, said. "So what we're trying to do is ensure that we're rewarding the people that are doing the program right. They have their stuff that is empty and dry, they don't have things in their recycling bin that shouldn't be. It's really to make people more conscious of the things they're recycling and throwing away. It's more of a positive reinforcement than a negative reinforcement."
A group from Republic Services will go through each residential pick-up area twice and monitor the recycling bins. If the resident is deemed to be a "super recycler", the group will put a sticker on the bin notifying the residence that they have been selected for a gift certificate. The group will then work with the city to make sure the gift certificates are mailed to the correct address.
To be selected as a super recycler, residents need to ensure their recycling bin contains only acceptable items, such as aluminum cans, paper products, plastic bottles and cardboard boxes. Residents also need to ensure containers are rinsed, dried and free of food.
Bennet said Republic Services will buy the gift certificates from local businesses to ensure the contest helps support them.
"A lot of businesses have had a tough time lately, and we just wanted to give back locally," Bennet said. "My husband is an attorney who owns his own business, so I know [relief and support] is everything."
Bret Scovill, Norman solid waste manager, said the city has a much higher recycling rate compared to other areas. Norman participation in recycling is around 92%, Scovill said, while the national rate is below 35%, according to 2015 data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Scoville said while the recycling rate in Norman is encouraging, he hopes the contest will also encourage residents to practice good recycling habits. Norman has a 22% contamination rate in city recycling bins, which is slightly below the nationwide average, and Scoville said the goal should be 12%.
Scoville said the biggest contaminant in Norman recycling bins is glass, which should be taken to one of the city's four drop-off centers.
"At the end of the day, the concept of recycling was set up to offset the amount of garbage going into the landfill... But with recycling, we're kind of producing more trash than we were before. That's why we're doing this [contest] — to make sure that if we're going to recycle, we need to keep contaminants down to a minimum.
"The right way to do recycling is at the point of purchase. When you walk in the store, you look at what you're buying and say, 'is it reusable? Is it refillable? Is it a number one or two plastic, or is it going to go to the landfill?'"
Chris Mattingly, Norman utilities director, said good recycling habits will also help keep collection rates low.
"This [contest] is a good effort. I like the positive reinforcement it's going to provide versus putting stickers on people cans saying they're doing it wrong. This is going to be encouraging residents to do it right." Mattingly said. "Our rates are $1.50 per pickup, and part of the formula they use to keep prices low is counting on a good, clean stream so we can keep affordable recycling prices."
More information on recycling is available at normanok.gov.
Jesse Crittenden covers the City of Moore and the marijuana industry for the Transcript. Reach him at jcrittenden@normantranscript.com or follow him at @jcritt31.
