CRRA 2023 Conference and Trade Show

Co-Owner

Kirk is a co-owner and principal of ReCREATE, specializing in waste characterizations, data management and tracking, and logistics coordination with waste haulers and municipal staff. Over the past decade Kirk has worked with public, private, and non-profit organizations in the waste industry, from state agencies to local municipalities.

Kirk’s professional specialties include the development and implementation of waste characterization studies; including cart-based sampling and route audits, coordinating with haulers and municipality staff to plan and coordinate fieldwork around complex routing schedules, developing data collection and management systems, and development of outreach and education materials.

Oops Tags vs In Person Outreach - What's more effective?

ReCREATE was selected to develop and conduct a recycling contamination outreach pilot project across 9 communities in the San Bernardino County JPA. The 1,200 household study included three test groups: a control, an oops tag only group, and an oops tag and direct contract (in-person outreach) group. The project set out to understand 1) how effective cart tagging versus cart tagging AND door-to-door outreach is on behavior change 2) which type of messaging resonated most with residents and 3) how social media can be utilized to engage the community in the process.

The presentation will cover the development of the study design, the challenges of implementing the study in communities spread across a vast area of California’s high desert and mountains, and project successes. The presentation will include the behavior change and contamination reduction results from the three test groups using household cart-based waste characterization data to support the findings. 

By sharing our methodology and an analysis of our results, we hope that it may provide insights for other communities seeking to address contamination in their resource recovery programs.

Co-Founder

Natalie is an education and outreach strategist that has 12 years of experience working with local jurisdictions across the nation on policy planning, recycling and organics implementation and creating effective communitywide behavior change. Her background lies in public relations specific to climate change, and she uses her passion and training in community based social marketing to educate other thousands of businesses and residents about sustainability. She has multiple online education and outreach courses, has developed a recycling coordinator training program, manages the Education and Outreach team and oversees the firm's projects related to edible food and single-use plastics stakeholder engagement and implementation.