I couldn’t pass up this story about recycling. It comes from Canada. I guess people are just not motivated to recycle there so the city of Edmonton decided to jazz things up and drum up some response.
They are installing motion detectors on recycling bins so when you open the lid it plays a song. Not just any song, but a sad song. Recycling bins that try to guilt you into recycling. The idea is encourage people not to put the wrong things in the bins (a common problem everywhere).
Here are some other cities who see the value of recycling:
I’m not sure who would approve this in lean times but the city is spending $160,000 on what they call the “blue bin blues” campaign. What’s sort of sweet is how the tunes are being sung by a local musician. So hopefully he’s getting paid royalties. It costs them about $10 a recycling bin.
Maybe next they can hold a contest for local artists to paint motivational messages or themes on the bins. Or do wraps. Or hold contests between apartment buildings. And post it all on Facebook.
They are targeting people who live in apartments and condos because the number of people who recycle from that group recently dropped to 80% from 90%. A 10% drop, but still not bad! I think they could do something better – economic incentives. If you save money, get a bonus or otherwise reward behaviors I believe it’ll be more effective. However, if it’s publicity they want then this should do the trick!
The campaign runs until the end of June.
At Rubberecycle we recycle tires and turn them into rubber mulch and play ground surfaces. Our rubber mulch doesn’t play music but people have been known to sing out loud when they first experience how soft the surface is.
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- Edmonton introduces ‘singing’ blue bins (cbc.ca)
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Tags: Edmonton, Recycling, recycling bins
