King County launches residential recycling education campaign

‘Recycle more. It's easy to do' aimed at increasing residential recycling rates

King County's Solid Waste Division announces the launch of its 2006 "Recycle more. It's easy to do" education campaign, asking county residents to increase their recycling at home.

Although 87 percent of King County residents say they participate in their curbside recycling program, more than two-thirds of what is currently taken to the county's Cedar Hills Regional Landfill is readily recyclable.

"This discrepancy points to the fact that while most of our citizens do recycle, we could all do a better job recycling," said County Executive Ron Sims.

Through research conducted in area homes, King County recycling experts found that most families understood what and how to recycle, but there were still items that they didn't recycle because it was inconvenient to do so.

For example, the farther people were from their kitchen or main recycling bin, the less likely they were to recycle. Also, if a container needed to be scraped out before recycling, such as a peanut butter jar, the container usually ended up in the trash.

King County residents can increase their recycling and collectively make a positive impact on the environment by following a few simple steps, such as knowing what recyclables are in their garbage, setting up a convenient recycling location or two in their home, involving the entire family in recycling, making the effort to clean out recyclable containers and adding food waste to yard waste bins (in select cities).

A promotional campaign supporting the "Recycle more. It's easy to do" begins Oct. 4 and runs through May 2007. For more information about recycling in King County, including a sneak preview of the ad campaign, visit www.metrokc.gov/recyclemore.