The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has announced that Pitkin County Solid Waste Center in Colorado has been named the winner of the SWANA Gold Excellence Award in the Awareness Campaign category. The award will be presented at SWANA’s annual conference, WASTECON®, on Tuesday, September 26, in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Pitkin County Solid Waste Center is receiving the award for its “Talkin’ Trash” campaign.
“More than 50% of the Pitkin County Landfill's waste stream could be recycled, reused, or composted,” said Cathleen Hall, solid waste manager for Pitkin County. “At this rate our landfill will be filled to capacity within a decade. We created a multi-media awareness campaign that inspired our citizens to think about their waste and to reduce, reuse, refuse, and recycle. The custom designed characters engage in 'Trash Talk'. The characters snipe at each other after mistakenly ending up in the landfill when they could have been diverted.”
“Our trash-talking characters have succeeded in not only getting the attention of our community, but they have helped us increase participation in our textile recycling, composting, and reuse programs,” Hall added.
The entry can be found on SWANA’s website https://swana.org/Awards/Excellence.aspx
SWANA’s Excellence Awards Program recognizes outstanding solid waste programs and facilities that advance the practice of environmentally and economically sound solid waste management through their commitment to utilizing effective technologies and processes in system design and operations, advancing worker and community health and safety, and implementing successful public education and outreach programs. Programs also must demonstrate that they are fiscally and environmentally responsible through their compliance with all applicable federal, state and local regulations.
CONTACT: Cathy Hall, Solid Waste Manager 970-429-2882.
About SWANA:
For more than 50 years, the Solid Waste Association of North America has been the leading professional association in the solid waste field. The association serves more than 9,000 members throughout North America, and thousands more with conferences, certifications, publications and technical training courses.