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Case Study and Photo Gallery: St. Paul, MN

  • Project Type: Cart Rollout
  • Total HH Served: 78,087
  • Projected New Tons/Year: 1,601
  • Year: 2017

During the 2016 holiday season, the City of St. Paul delivered a special Christmas present to every household: a 64-gal. recycling cart. The City’s aggressive timeline put nearly 80,000 carts on the ground within two months.  

The Recycling Partnership supported the roll-out with grant dollars, technical assistance, and educational resources.

In addition to rolling out carts, the City revamped their acceptable materials representation, paring down eight categories used to depict and describe curbside recyclables to just three. These three categories – containers, papers, and boxes – simplified the message, boosted participation, and aided in material recovery.

The first year after rolling out carts, St. Paul recovered an average of 50 more lbs. per household than in bins (both single-stream programs).

ready set roll presentation