Waste Management’s Public Education Materials for Elgin, Illinois

Question: In the current waste hauler contract, Waste Management (WM) commits itself to the following public education deliverables:

“The Contractor shall develop and implement a public awareness program. The Contractor shall be responsible for the cost of the all associated education material and for its distribution. This public awareness program shall include, but not be limited to electronic notification the publication and mailing of a bilingual ( English & Spanish) brochure with information about the City' s Solid Waste & Recycling Program, on a biannual basis throughout the term of this Agreement, commencing during 2015. This publication shall illustrate how materials are to be prepared for collection and emphasize the importance of recycling and waste reduction. All consumer education material must be approved by the City prior to distribution. The City reserves the right to edit all consumer education material for content. All costs associated with producing and distributing the consumer education materials will be the sole responsibility of the Contractor. The Contractor will be allowed to utilize the City' s U.S. postal permit for mass mailings; provided, however, that the Contractor will be responsible for paying all associated postage fees. The Contractor shall provide the City with additional such educational materials as the City deems necessary.

Would you please share WM’s public education materials it has contractually provided to the city of Elgin and its residents?

City of Elgin’s Answer:

WM’s public awareness program includes providing printed materials for distribution through mailings and at community events, as well as electronic copies of these materials for distribution through virtual avenues such as the City website, Facebook and Instagram. WM staff is present at in-person community forums and events throughout the year to provide education (examples of past events included the Public Works Open House, Fire Department Open House, Hawthorne Nature Center events, Farmers Market, and a public forum at the library on recycling). Recycling information may also be found on wm.com.

All materials are provided in an English and Spanish version.  WM covers the cost for the educational materials, and costs to distribute information on waste and recycling services and education.

Material shared with residents through the mail, social media, or at community events, includes the following (attached). Note, this does not include everything that WM has distributed, but provides a good representation of the information that has been shared:

1)      Service brochure mailed to residents
2)      WM’s 3 Simple Rules to Recycling
3)      WM’s Most Common Recycle Contaminants
4)      WM’s Do and Don’ts
5)      RORR newsletter mailed to residents at the start of the RORR Curbside Recycle Education campaign
6)      RORR cart hanger used to tag resident contaminated recycle carts
7)      Recent postcard mailed to residents in a recycle pilot that focused on recycle education and increasing plastic recycling
8)      WM’s At Your Door Special Collection for Household Hazardous Waste and Electronics
9)      Not attached by noted: Mayor Kaptain also did a video at the WM Elgin Transfer Station on recycling right.

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You are invited to participate in The Elgin Watchman’s “To Recycle Or Not To Recycle?” community project for 2024 Elgin Earth Month. It is easy to do, and only takes you a few minutes. Everything is explained in our inaugural blog post. CLICK HERE to learn how.