Spring/Summer 
2008 Issue

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Recycle Ann Arbor

Celebrating Recycling Victories for Ann Arbor

By Laura Biernat
March/April Issue, 2004

Ann Arbor residents have reason to celebrate! In December, Recycle Ann Arbor signed a 10-year performance-based contract with the City of Ann Arbor to continue providing city residents with its curbside recycling program. This extended partnership with the city affords RAA the financial security needed to sustain and grow the curbside recycling program along with the ability to expand regionally and increase our exposure to apartment residents and businesses.

For Ann Arbor residents, this new contract signifies the city’s commitment to quality recycling programs in our community. By awarding the contract to RAA, a local nonprofit that pioneered the curbside recycling in the Ann Arbor community in 1977, Ann Arbor has invested in an organization that reinvests profits into environmental programs and services that have immediate, local benefit within the community while reducing demand on public dollars for similar services.

The new contract holds RAA to minimum performance standards while offering fi nancial incentives for growth. The contract also provides for program expansion through regional partnerships, leveraging economies of scale, and increasing the amount of tonnage eligible for revenue sharing to the city from the Materials Recovery Facility.

RAA plans to increase its marketing and outreach program in order to increase recovery rates and participation in its curbside and business recycling programs as well as to help improve customer service and program awareness. RAA also plans to reinstitute a neighborhood-based outreach network, to be run by the Ecology Center, that will provide a distribution platform for other city environmental issues and messages.

Ann Arbor currently boasts one of the nation’s highest recovery rates thanks to the continued efforts of RAA and participating Ann Arbor residents and businesses. RAA continues to be a leader in the recycling industry, developing innovative recycling programs that reduce the amount of reusable and recyclable materials ending up in landfills every year while supporting initiatives to improve the environmental quality of our community through recovery, reuse, recycling and efficient energy use. RAA operates Washtenaw County’s Drop Off Station, the ReUse Center, and the Environmental House Energy and Green Building Resource Center.

Under the new contract, RAA can invest in long-term recycling and environmental-based programs that will continue to contribute to the high quality standard of living enjoyed by Ann Arbor residents. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the support of the Ecology Center, Director Mike Garfield, and the Ecology Center’s members. Thanks to all of you, we kept it local!

Let’s work together as a community to ensure that recycling and reuse remain a high priority. You can help by volunteering to be a block leader in your neighborhood. In this capacity, you will help RAA with outreach and education, which, in turn, will help to increase participation and recycling rates.

Recycle Ann Arbor is a private nonprofit organization
located at 2420 South Industrial Highway in Ann Arbor and
can be reached at (734) 662-6288 or www.recycleannarbor.org/.

Laura Biernat is Marketing Coordinator for Recycle Ann Arbor,
a non-profit subsidiary of the Ecology Center.

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