Projects & Programs - Archive

"Don't Trash Cans!"

In 1997, CSR launched the "Don’t Trash Cans!" campaign in Metro Toronto. The campaign aggressively used mass media, social marketing and special events campaigns targeted at boosting aluminum beverage can recovery. "Don’t Trash Cans!" encouraged Ontarians to recycle all of their aluminum soft drink cans, at and away from home. The intention was to increase revenues to municipalities through the recovery of additional aluminum cans.

CSR worked with 13 regions and municipalities to carry the "Don’t Trash Cans!" message to more than four million Ontarians. The participating municipalities included Toronto, Barrie, North Bay, London, Markham, Muskoka, Northwest Ontario Recycling Association and the Regions of Waterloo, Halton, Sudbury, York, Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara. Radio advertisements, newspaper ads, outdoor ads, billboards and transit shelters were all used to promote the "Don’t Trash Cans!" message. In partnership with CSR, participating municipalities added to the scope of the campaign by undertaking media relations and direct mail programs to reach their citizens.

The results of the campaign indicated that Ontarians responded well to the advertising and promotion. In Toronto, for example, the first three months of the campaign saw a 26% increase in the number of aluminum cans collected compared to the same three month period from the year before. Ten of the other "Don’t Trash Cans!" communities saw double digit increases in the amount of aluminum collected.

Furthermore, an Angus Reid Group telephone survey conducted in Toronto after the campaign found that more than 50% of respondents were aware of the recycling promotion and more than 30% knew the message that "recycling one more can a week" could add significant revenues to municipal recycling programs.

The "Don’t Trash Cans!" campaign was nominated for a Recycling Council of Ontario Waste Minimization Award.

Community-Based Social Marketing Campaign

As part of the "Don’t Trash Cans!" campaign, CSR and Beverage Recovery in Canada (BRinC) launched a community-based social marketing campaign to:

increase recycling rates in multi-family buildings with recycling service
bring recycling service to buildings previously unserved
improve recycling behaviour in single family households where recycling performance was believed to be low

The door-to-door contact work was carried out on behalf of CSR and BrinC by North Toronto Green Community (NTGC). Highlights of the campaign include:

recycling service was introduced to 57 apartment buildings in Toronto
residents in 53 apartment buildings received door-to-door visits from NTGC
in total, over 20,000 apartment units were visited by NTGC

NTGC visited more than 20,000 single family homes encouraging residents to recycle

Advertisements also ran in community newspapers as another reminder for residents to recycle.

"Keep 'Em Coming!"

Following on the heels of the successful "Don’t Trash Cans!" campaign, CSR launched "Keep ‘Em Coming!" in December 1997 to remind Ontarians to continue to recycle all of their aluminum soft drink cans and other recyclables during the holidays.

The campaign ran in Toronto using radio commercials as well as posters in subway stations and subway cars. The radio commercials also ran in London, Sudbury, Muskoka, Barrie and North Bay.

The "Keep ‘Em Coming!" campaign resulted from focus group research which tested a number of advertising messages and themes. The results showed that people wanted to be thanked for their recycling efforts, and reminded to keep recycling.

popcan Recycling Contest

In February 1998, CSR, in cooperation with Alert Records and 102.1 The Edge radio station, launched an exciting new recycling campaign aimed at teenagers. The month-long popcan recycling contest involved 23 schools in Toronto, and encouraged students to recycle as many aluminum beverage cans as they could for one month. The school that recycled the most cans per capita, won a free, exclusive concert by three Canadian pop bands featured on the recently-released popcan CD. This contest aimed to change the attitude of teenagers towards recycling and waste management.

CSR Becomes A Waste Watcher!

CSR has teamed up with the City of Toronto to deliver a community-based education program called "Waste Watchers." The program, designed to increase recycling participation and awareness, relies on volunteers, and targets primary and secondary schools, English as a second language classes, and community groups such as Cubs and Brownies. As well, Waste Watcher volunteers go to Environment Days and Earth Day celebrations. The volunteers perform a variety of activities including presentations and initiating or assisting in projects that have a waste reduction focus.

The volunteers undergo an intensive, three-day training session, and must contribute 40 hours of volunteer time before "graduating" to become an official Waste Watcher. The volunteer training focuses on a number of waste management topics such as curbside recycling programs, composting, water efficiency and household hazardous waste. CSR’s contributions are targeted towards the waste management portion of the program.

Innovative CSR/Municipal Partnership Agreements

CSR’s innovative public-private partnership agreements represented a "first" in the Canadian waste management field with a contractual relationship established with a municipality to work cooperatively to create rational, cost-effective and sustainable waste management systems. The municipalities of Markham and London were the first to enter into the partnership agreement. The cooperative arrangement called for the municipality and CSR to examine jointly the existing waste management system and identify the measures needed to establish an economically self-sustaining system within a two-year timeframe.

Self-sustaining means that the partnership municipalities agree to evaluate and implement appropriate self-financing mechanisms for their waste management systems. These mechanisms include the possibility of integrating "pay-as-you-throw" or utility type operations into their waste management systems for either recycling or garbage collection.

CSR and the Town of Markham will examine the technical and cost-effective benefits of a variety of programs including:

a co-collection system for picking up garbage and recycling using one truck in a single pass by the curb
programs to boost recycling rates in apartment buildings
assistance with school recycling education programs through a new video
financial support to help Markham sponsor the R2000 International World Congress
roll-out of a program to encourage residents to increase diversion and produce no more than three garbage bags each week
contract advice

The value of these contributions will range between $180,000 and $235,000 with similar support from the Town of Markham. In London, the focus of CSR’s activities will be on conducting research on a variety of financing systems for waste management programs. This research is being conducted initially through the Innovative Financing Study Group (see Markets and Technical Development). CSR and the city will examine the technical and cost-effectiveness benefits of a number of programs unique to the London partnership including:

implementing the Integrated Waste Management Tool
research to optimize recycling and waste systems
contract and tender development for London’s future recycling programs
communication and education programs
markets and general technical advice

The value of these contributions will range between $150,000 and $200,000 with similar support for the program from the City of London.

Municipal/Industry Study on Recycling "Cost Allocation"

CSR initiated and sponsored the Municipal Recycling Cost Allocation Task Group composed of municipal waste and recycling system professionals. It worked to establish a system to identify and allocate costs in recycling programs. The group established a set of principles and protocols to employ "activity based costing" in recycling systems, and developed a universal costing approach that could be applied to all recycling programs.

This work benefits both industry and municipalities by permitting each to assess the cost of recycling individual materials or material streams, and supporting decision-making about packaging choices. Municipal recycling operators will also benefit by being better able to identify costs within their systems and applying cost-effectiveness measures.

The full report is available from CSR.

Integrated Solid Waste Management Tool - Life Cycle Inventory of Waste Systems

CSR and the Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC) are co-sponsoring the development of a computer model that Canadian municipalities can use to evaluate the environmental and economic effects of proposed changes to their waste management systems. Developed in a cooperative effort with the City of London, the model will help municipalities optimize existing waste management practices and examine new options for managing particular materials and material streams.

Specifically, this model is designed to evaluate the impacts of waste management from the point of collection at the curb to the point at which recyclable materials, usable compost or recovered energy is delivered to the end user. Defining and linking the environmental and economic elements of recycling programs together with other options such as energy recovery, composting and landfilling, on a material-by-material basis, will assist municipalities to realize the benefits of an integrated and optimized waste management system.

The full report is available from CSR.

The London Cares Blue Box Food Drive

In June of 1997, the City of London, in partnership with CSR and Canadian Waste Services, undertook the "London Cares Blue Box Food Drive" which helped less fortunate families in London by encouraging residents to place non-perishable food in clear bags or grocery sacs beside their blue box during their regular curbside recycling collection day. This initiative marked the first time the blue box collection system was used in such a way in London. CSR’s grocery retailers members were also very supportive and the blue box food drive was advertised in stores to remind residents to participate. In total, Londoners gave 36,000 lbs. of food to the London and Area Food Bank.

Etobicoke Maximum Diversion Pilot Project

CSR and the City of Etobicoke teamed up for the "Maximum Recycling" pilot project in the Martin Grove/Rathburn area which encouraged residents in 657 single family homes to divert waste voluntarily from the garbage stream into the recycling and composting streams. The residents put out kitchen organic waste at the curb for pick up along with an expanded list of recyclables, yard materials, diapers and remaining waste. The residents achieved a 60% diversion rate during the pilot.