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by Kathleen Vaught
"Education is the key to our recycling efforts," stated Donna Kliewer, Waste Services Manager for the City of Allen Community Services Department. "We’ve seen a direct correlation between the growth of our recycling efforts and the implementation of numerous education programs over the years. We would not be able to offer these without the grant funding we receive."
The grant funding process requires staff time to research and complete application requirements, but the extra effort paid off for the city’s recycling education program last year when four grant awards were received. The grants provided for an education and outreach robotic puppet, apartment recycling pilot program, printing and distribution of reusable bags and recycling containers to collect plastic bottles and aluminum cans for recycling. The first three grants listed are from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and the latter was awarded through Nestle Waters of North America and Keep America Beautiful.
The robotic puppet grant provides the Waste Services Division with a multifaceted approach to spread the recycling message throughout the community. The main component is a robotic puppet and tricycle. The puppet has two interchangeable heads to customize the presentation depending on the audience.
"It has taken some time for this program to come to fruition but it is well worth it," Donna remarked. "Every time we take Angelina Recyclina out into the community, we receive a positive response. Everyone—adults and kids included—stop in their tracks to talk directly to her."
The idea of "Angelina Recyclina," as she was named by staff, was developed over five years ago by Donna and matches the image of the little girl on the side of the recycling trucks that service Allen. She "talks trash" and has a goal of teaching our community about waste management facts and recycling efforts. The robotic puppet’s speech and movement is controlled by a remote and provides the ability for education staff to interact with an audience while staying behind the scenes.
Angelina Recyclina’s alter egos are "Mr. Rivers" and "Professor Waterwise." Both of these puppets use a head fashioned after an older male with Albert Einstein-type hair. As Mr. Rivers, the puppet wears overalls and discusses the quality of our creeks and rivers, explaining the devastation to natural wildlife, their habitats and our water supply that is caused by the mismanagement of waste. He offers simple steps that can be taken to prevent damage and conserve our natural resources.
Professor Waterwise wears a white lab coat and educates the audience on the processes used to clean wastewater and our environment.
Along with the robotic puppets, the grant funded production of various printed materials, one of which Allen residents will receive in the mail this summer—the recycling and trash guidelines brochure. This is a valuable resource for everything you want to know about trash and recycling.
The multi-family apartment recycling grant fulfills the need for an essential recycling educational initiative for Allen’s apartment residents.
By city ordinance, multi-family complexes (MFC) are mandated to recycle. Each MFC has recycling containers available for their residents to use; however, in a survey conducted by Kathy Keller-Mielke, Education Specialist for Community Services, many residents are unaware of the containers and/or they do not realize the cost of recycling is already included in their rental rates.
The Waste Services Division developed this pilot program for MFCs over a four-year period. It includes educational brochures for each resident detailing recycling at their complex, special bags to carry recyclables down to the single stream containers, posters placed in common areas and magnets for individual apartment residents.
"It’s important to teach all residents the "whys" and "hows" of recycling," Kathy stated. "People are more likely to recycle when they understand the environmental degradation caused by not reducing, reusing and recycling, and especially when we explain how easy it is with our single stream recycling. Plus, in the end, it’s a cost-saving measure for the entire community."
The pilot MFC apartment recycling program is currently in use at Parkview in Allen and four other complexes have expressed interest in utilizing the educational resources available. All of the materials are available and ready to use. The city expects more of the multi-family complexes to sign up for the program, making it a priority for their residents.
A major concern for our environ-ment that is often overlooked is the prevalence and infiltration of plastic bags into our daily lives. Numerous campaigns have begun to inform the public on the alarming facts regarding the nearly 100 billion plastic bags the U.S. goes through annually. Since plastic bags do not biodegrade, they have to end up somewhere and, unfortunately, a huge percentage of them end up in our landfills, litter on the roadways and pollution in our rivers, lakes and oceans.
The City of Allen was awarded a grant to provide the community with reusable bags as a substitute for the plastic ones. Over the course of the last year, 16,000 reusable bags with the "Keep Allen Beautiful" theme on the front were handed out free of charge at local grocery stores, school events, festivals and from the Utility Billing reception window at City Hall.
"It is the direction we need to take," said Donna. "And it’s the right direction. The amount of damage plastic bags cause the environment is staggering and we encourage everyone to use reusable bags. You can pick them up just about anywhere and they even come in fashionable designs, too."
The reusable bag program grant was only for one year and the remaining supply was handed out at this year’s Allen USA Celebration in June.
Another plastic that has risen to the top of environmental distress is the plastic water bottle. It can take over 1,000 years for a single plastic water bottle to even begin the decomposition process. Subsequently, they join the plastic bags in our landfills and end up as litter. Keep America Beautiful has combined forces with Nestle Waters North America to reach out to schools to help promote recycling of these bottles. Keep Allen Beautiful (KAB), who works closely with the Waste Services Division on education and outreach, was awarded one of the 12 grants available nationwide.
KAB already has educational programs in nine of the 21 schools in Allen and this grant will enable them to reach all of the schools and extend the program to sporting events. Posters have been designed for school cafeterias promoting behavior changes and encouraging students to recycle. The program brings multiple organizations together-—KAB, Allen Waste Services, Allen ISD and Community Waste Disposal (CWD)—in order to get the message out about the benefits of recycling.
These essential grants ensure that the City of Allen and its Waste Services Division are able to continue their quest to educate our community to reduce, reuse and recycle. For more information about the environmental education programs available, contact the Waste Services Division at 214.509.4552 or the Water Conservation Division at 214.509.4553. v
Kathleen Vaught is the marketing specialist for the City of Allen. |
