The City of Raleigh will conduct a 12-week campaign to increase residential curbside recycling. The City Council voted unanimously at its July 7 meeting to accept a $10,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources to implement the curbside recycling incentive campaign. The City of Raleigh is providing $2,000 in matching funds.

All single-family households in Raleigh that receive curbside recycling from the City will be eligible to win prizes during the incentive campaign. The City plans to randomly select households to visit during the campaign. Winning households must have properly prepared recyclables in the recycling bin placed on the curb on their designated weekly collection day.

The households selected will receive gift cards redeemable at a local merchant. Approximately 110,000 households in Raleigh receive recycling, trash and yard waste collection from the City's Solid Waste Services Department.

The purpose of the campaign is to increase the amount of recyclable materials collected at the curb from households. This, in turn, will increase revenue the City receives from the sale of these collected recyclable items. The campaign will educate homeowners about the proper preparation of recyclable items for curbside collection and inform residents about upcoming landfill bans on plastic bottles and wooden pallets.

City of Raleigh officials hope the incentive campaign will help the state meet its goal of increasing recyclables statewide to 2 million tons a year by 2012. The state has set a goal for Raleigh of 412 pounds of recyclables per household per year starting in 2012. In Fiscal Year 2007-08, the City collected an average of 374 pounds of recyclables per household. Figures for Fiscal Year 2008-09, which ended on June 30, have not yet been compiled.

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