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4 the 12-month pilot project; 13 percent began efforts to expand the recycling St. Louis Park has established a fall waste that they set out for program to the remaining 10,000 model for solid waste source separation ollection. homes. which is effective and popular, and Throughout the pilot, the amount of The city was once again fortunate in should be easily adaptable to a variety collected newsprint was generally a a financial sense. In the spring, Con- of settings. The premise of the pro- good predictor of total recyclables. gress passed the 1983 Jobs Bill that gram is to make the service as conve- Those who recycled newsprint regular- contained a large appropriation for the nient and easy as possible. While recy- ly were also likely to recycle other CDBG program. St. Louis Park com- cling containers may seem expensive, materials frequently. Although the peted and received$152,000 to expand they represent a non-recurring cost. monetary return to ReCyCo from scrap the recycling program on the basis that The impact they have in terms of newsprint varied from poor to moder- it will create jobs. This grant will fund increasing the amount of material peo- ate, this component of the program most of the capital expense of the ple recycle shows that they are a wise was key to recycling other materials to recycling containers. investment. make the rest of the operation finan- The city will provide recycling ser- The pilot program shows that recy- cially successful. vices to all 12,000 residences free of clingimportant an ' portant role in overall charge in 1984. The annual refuse waste abatementlans. Recycling can P Y Evaluation collection and city administration extend landfill life and reduce the capac- The program evaluation included charges in the contract will increase to ity necessary in large resource recov- comparison with a control neighbor $73.50. By using grants, the $73.50 ery facilities. It will create private sec- hood and with the prior year's collec- charge will fund the reserve balance in tor jobs in the solid waste industry. the refuse fund and a portion of the And, most importantly, recycling will tions in the pilot neighborhoods. Based administration fee on a on on a one-year comparison, a time basis, save scarce Y Woodlake resources — land, water, collected four percent less refuse in the remaining costs of containers, recy- and virgin material. II pilot areas during the recycling pro- cling collections, and publicity. gram than it did before the pilot's About the authors: existence. In a control neighborhoodCraig W. Dawson is administrative without recycling collections were four Conclusions assistant to the city manager in St. ercent more than in recycling areas. Several factors contributed to the Louis Park. He was previously assist- Having recycling collections coincide success of the St. Louis Park recycling ant to the director of public works. He 'th the day of regular refuse collection program. Polyethylene containers pro- holds a master's degree in public appeared to have mixed importance. vided a convenient vehicle and constant administration from the University of Set-out rates in the neighborhood with reminder to recycle. Semimonthly col- Kansas. recycling and refuse collections on dif- lection encouraged residents to adopt a Clint Pires is coordinator of man- ferent days were 42 percent compared recycling behavior. St. Louis Park has agement information systems for St. with 52 percent in other areas. How- an active, well-educated citizenry which Louis Park. He was previously assist- ever, the amount of material per set- was probably inclined to support and ant to the director of public works. He out was also 14 percent higher in this Participate in such a program. Public has also served as assistant director of neighborhood than the other areas. education efforts were comprehensive the Illinois City Management Associa- and readily available. St. Louis Park tion and coordinator of the master of also needed to collect data from only arts in public affairs program at North- City-wide expansion two companies, Woodlake and ern Illinois University. He holds an Given the apparent success of the ReCyCo, in order to evaluate the effec- MAPA degree from Northern Illinois pilot program, in May 1983 the city tiveness of the recycling program. University.