Points at the drug store, the grocery store, the movie theatre; on flights, in hotels and on getaways – there are lots of places you can earn rewards.
Now Simcoe County is looking to give its residents some points – those who use its organics program at home – could be winners!
From May to August, the county’s environmental services staff will randomly visit neighbourhoods on waste collection day (more commonly known as garbage day) to reward those who are using their green bins.
The staff will put a gold star sticker on their green bin and also leave a gift – a prize package that includes a t-shirt touting their environmental heroism.
Those gold-star residents would also be eligible for an end-of-season draw for a larger, as yet unspecified, prize.
Meanwhile, their neighbours who aren’t putting their vegetable peels, tissues and other food wastes into the organics bins would be told where they could pick up a free bin and join in their neighbours in saving landfill space.
Simcoe County’s contracts and collections supervisor Willma Bureau said about two thirds of county homes use their green bins.
However, in determining that number, county staff surveyed neighbourhoods over a two-week period – and some county councillors are therefore worrying that families that use their green bins every other week will not only miss out on getting a prize pack, but getting a letter from the county urging them to participate.
Debbie Korolnek, the county’s environment, engineering and planning general manager, said staff will take care to write a letter that is encouraging to residents and suggest, even if they use a backyard composter, that the green bin could help them divert even more waste.
She said it could include a phrase such as “Perhaps you have a backyard composter or you don’t put your green bin out all the time,” then go on to list the additional items – like meat bones and scraps – that can be put in the green bin but not in a backyard composter.
Weekly green bin use is likely to rise in the summer among residents who put out their green bins every other week in cooler months, suggested Bureau.
“You mitigate issues with the ‘yuck’ factor if you put it out every week,” she said.
As two out of three homes in Simcoe County are using their green bins, the county would expect to give out 130 prize packs over the course of the rewards program.
The gains, however, would be in raising awareness and encouraging more families to join in using the organics program as the county continues to work towards its diversion target of 70 per cent by 2020.
Today, 60 per cent of waste is kept out of landfills.
An area of big gains is increasing the organics use, said Bureau, who estimates with the rewards and education program, 20 households each week would likely join in diverting food waste in the organics program.
The county is also encouraging winners to share their stories on social media to increase awareness of the program.
Residents who join in the program on a less than weekly basis, as well as those whose neighbourhoods aren’t visited by county environmental staff, can self-nominate to get into the contest by posting a photograph of them using their green bin. They would be eligible for a prize pack and entered into the seasonal draw.
County staff estimate the program will cost $40,000, which would be funded by money the county saves in its environmental programs as well as through its solid waste management reserve fund.
