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extra air pollutants such as carbon dioxide) and traffic on Roseville streets. Representatives <br />from cities using the Blue Bag program state that this approach ensures "the least amount of <br />trucks on the road as possible" (Bednar, 2017). It has also been described as an "easy program" <br />(Bednar, 2017) to incorporate, provided haulers are willing to participate. As is the case with <br />the source separated curbside cart program, convenience is definitely an advantage to this type <br />of program. To be fair, there are drawbacks to the Blue Bag program. The main concern of this <br />program is the increased possibility of contamination in the organics recycling material because <br />the bags are placed in regular trash bins (Goodwin, 2017). Another drawback to consider is <br />that not all haulers are willing to participate in a commingled organics recycling program, so <br />Roseville would have to examine which of its nine (City of Roseville, n.d.) contracted trash <br />haulers would be willing to do the Blue Bag program. Additionally, as was mentioned with the <br />curbside cart type of pickup program, it is likely that only single-family households will be <br />eligible to participate in the Blue Bag program, whereas a drop-off site would be available to <br />all residents of the city who choose to participate. <br />Cost for the Blue Bag program is minimal for residents as well as for the city; besides investing <br />in education and outreach for the community about the program, the city would only incur <br />expenses if it were to purchase a set number of bags for its residents to use. For example, the <br />City of Elk River offers its residents a year supply of the bags upon their annual renewal date <br />as part of the monthly $4 subscription to the organics recycling program (Bednar, 2017). <br />Elk River, the city that utilizes the Blue Bag program for its organics recycling, currently has <br />a participation rate of approximately 4% of eligible residents (Bednar, 2017). It was noted <br />during the interview that when the city used to do curbside cart pickup, participation was <br />higher, and dropped from about 500 households to 300 households after implementation of the <br />Blue Bag program (Bednar, 2017). There is speculation as to why this happened, and the <br />suggestion was that perhaps people liked the curbside cart program better than the Blue Bag <br />program (Bednar, 2017) because they started with curbside cart service first and were familiar <br />with it. However, this is just one idea and there is limited research to support this suggestion. <br />Recommendation 3: Utilize Comprehensive Outreach and Education Strategies <br />The City of Roseville can invest time and money in public outreach and education about <br />organics recycling regardless of which program it chooses. Every city and county <br />representative interviewed emphasized the importance of outreach. One useful outreach <br />method encourages participation by sending out mailers with return paid postage to express <br />interest in enrollment. For example, both Anoka County and the City of St. Louis Park <br />experienced significant enrollment increases after they sent out initial organics recycling <br />informational mailers followed by those featuring enrollment postcards with return postage <br />paid (Saffert, 2017; Fisher, 2017). Other effective outreach methods include presentations and <br />information handed out at community events, as well as social media engagement on sites such <br />as Facebook. Beyond initially educating residents on the positive influence organics recycling <br />can have and how to do it, continuous education is strongly encouraged (Fisher, 2017). SCORE <br />grant funds may be used to assist with costs of public education outreach and incurred costs <br />such as staffing at events, materials and postage for mailers, and offering free start-up supplies <br />such as kitchen pails or free compostable bags for a set or extended amount of time. <br />Another idea is to start a volunteer program consisting of residents willing to help provide <br />community support for implementation and maintenance of an organics recycling program, <br />specifically at a drop-off site location, but possibly elsewhere (volunteering at community <br />events, etc.). Hennepin County has such a program. It involves a rigorous training program, <br />17 <br />