In June of 2021, Baltimore City launched a program to provide Baltimore City residents with a free recycling cart in order to greatly expand residents’ access to safe, effective recycling and improved collection infrastructure. The program followed one of the key recommendations in the City’s Less Waste, Better Baltimore Plan, which has identified options for improving solid waste diversion, recycling, and disposal in the city. Previously, Baltimore households who participated in the city’s weekly recycling collections had to provide their own carts.
None of this would have happened without the groundbreaking collaboration brought together by
The Recycling Partnership, with American Beverage’s Every Bottle Back
initiative, Closed Loop Partners, Dow, the Baltimore Civic Fund, and
Rehrig Pacific.
In this webinar, Kristyn Oldendorf, Chief, Office of Support Services, Baltimore City DPW discusses this unique public-private partnership to modernize Baltimore’s recycling collection and infrastructure sharing the implementation steps taken along with adjustments made to fine-tune the program. Joining her is Baltimore City Chief of Grants Management Ann Haskins Brookover on grant opportunities available and how to access them, and the City’s Director of Special Projects Andrew Aleshire on some of the logistical details of working with the vendor on distribution.
Listen in to full discussion and/or download pdf of slide deck. And see below for additional resources.
Additional resources:
Less Waste, Better Baltimore
Recycling Cart Rollout ’21
Recycle Right Web Tool
Residential Recycling Carts Updates
*Be sure to register for the MRN/SWANA Mid-Atlantic Annual Conference scheduled for Thursday, June 23! We'll ask thought leaders from throughout the industry (and ourselves) how we move on and move up post-pandemic.