Recology CleanScapes Announces $50,000 Award Winners for Neighborhood Waste Reduction
The South Lake Union Eastlake, Montlake, and parts of Queen Anne and Capitol Hill neighborhoods will receive $50,000 toward a capital improvement project in their neighborhoods as a result of having the lowest "waste footprint" among all customers served by Recology CleanScapes in Seattle.
The award is a part of an annual competition to encourage Seattle residents to reduce the disposal of materials. In this annual competition, Recology CleanScapes challenges the neighborhoods it serves to reduce their solid waste footprint. To increase their odds of winning, residents compost leaves and grass in their yards; use washable rags, dishware and napkins; share tools with their neighbors; and donate unwanted but usable items to charity.
Community members will participate in a process to determine how best to invest this money into a project in the neighborhood. Previous winners have focused their projects as a way to further reduce the amount of materials sent to landfills. A recent example of how a winning neighborhood put their award money to work is the NE Seattle Tool Library that allows residents to borrow tools for household projects and yard work.
Recology CleanScapes currently provides solid waste and recycling collection service for the cities of Seattle, Shoreline, Des Moines, Issaquah, Carnation and Bothell. Recology CleanScapes is a subsidiary of Recology, an employee-owned company that sees a world without waste, where resources are used and re-used in a sustainable ecosystem that strives for their best and highest use.