Recycling board OKs incentives

Pulaski County district to pay $150,000 for rewards program

Ontario Jones sorts paper and other recyclable materials Thursday morning at Waste Management Inc.’s recycling facility in Little Rock.The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board approved a $150,000 contract for a recycling-incentives program in Pulaski County.
Ontario Jones sorts paper and other recyclable materials Thursday morning at Waste Management Inc.’s recycling facility in Little Rock.The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board approved a $150,000 contract for a recycling-incentives program in Pulaski County.

The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board approved with little discussion Thursday a $150,000 contract with a Little Rock advertising agency for a recycling rewards program for Pulaski County residents.

The district, a state agency that covers only Pulaski County, has contracted with Cranford Co. to promote and support an incentive and rewards program for residents to recycle. The contract was approved as district officials also discussed what to include in its $1.6 million fiscal 2016 budget.

Cranford Co. representatives told the board the program will begin later this spring and feature television, radio, Internet and magazine advertisements using the phrase, "There's never been a better time to start [recycling]."

The program also will have a social media campaign of sponsored posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #RewardPatrol.

The board, composed of the mayors of the five largest cities and the county judge, approved the company back in January on a 4-1 vote, with North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith objecting to the district operating a rewards program at all. He said the contract was money "wasted" and that he'd like to see more funds spent on providing recycling opportunities, particularly in schools.

The rewards program with Cranford Co. will promote recycling in schools in the fall. It also will allow county residents to register online and report that they have recycled in exchange for a chance to earn rewards and win prizes supplied by businesses. Additionally, once each month city and county representatives -- the "Rewards Patrol" -- will randomly deliver rewards to people who have placed their recycling bins on their curbs on collection days.

People who don't live in houses with curbside recycling could report recycling at their apartment buildings or at private drop-off facilities on the eastern edge of Little Rock or city facilities in Maumelle or Jacksonville.

The district established its first rewards program, Recyclebank, in 2012 after signing a new contract with recycler Waste Management that included increasing the size of recycling bins and allowing residents to place all recyclables in a single bin. The rewards program was requested by board members who wanted to make sure residents were taking advantage of recycling.

The district never paid for the first two years of Recyclebank and paid only $43,000 for 4½ months of operation in 2014. Last year's expenditure was set to supplant a $135,000-per-year expenditure for six recycling drop-off sites in the county.

The board dropped Recyclebank after never getting more than 20.8 percent participation in the incentive program. About 92,000 customers were eligible.

Participation in curbside recycling in three cities involved in the contract -- Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood -- was 75 percent in 2014, considered by a Keep America Beautiful representative to be "very high" compared with most city curbside recycling programs.

Board members have said a new program was necessary to fulfill a promise made to the public that a rewards program for recycling would be available to them.

The contract with Cranford Co. is for one year, with the ability to renew for three years afterward.

The $150,000 contract constitutes 11 percent of the district's budget in 2014, although the district's new fiscal year begins July 1. The district is projecting a $1.6 million budget for fiscal 2016, with nearly $456,000 in carryover funds, an increase from last year in part because of spending $90,000 less on the rewards program than expected.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said he was concerned to see such a high amount of carryover funds -- with more than one-third of the fiscal 2015 budget unspent -- and asked whether the district could consider spending that money on other programs that residents might want.

District Comptroller Desi Ledbetter said most of the carryover funds were restricted for certain uses, such as electronics recycling grants being restricted for electronics recycling. He also said the carryover amount would go down closer to the new fiscal year because more of the money would be spent by then.

Ledbetter also presented the district's legislative audit, which found that the district was financially sound because of careful management by district officials.

"In the last 14 years, we've had not negative response from the legislative auditor," district Executive Director John Roberts said.

Metro on 03/27/2015

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