King County announcing winner of ‘Recycle More Neighborhood Challenge’ with final trash weigh-in

Learn how six families put their trash on diet to cut heaps of household garbage

WHAT: For the past month, as part of King County’s 2008 “Recycle More. It’s Easy to Do” education campaign, six Renton neighbors have competed to see how much weight their garbage can lose. On Thursday, June 26, they will share what they have learned about recycling at home, including food scraps and food-soiled paper, in order to collectively make a big difference to the environment. The goal of the contest and campaign is to encourage King County residents to increase their recycling at home, to meet the county’s goal of zero waste of resources by 2030.

Thursday, June 26: Last Day of the Neighborhood Challenge - the Final Weigh-in:

· After five weekly weigh-ins, the six participating neighbors will bring their final week’s worth of trash to be weighed and analyzed by King County EcoConsumer Tom Watson.

· A final calculation will be made to assess which family lost the highest percentage of trash and a winner will be announced.

· Watson will then highlight how much each family lost as well as the cumulative total.

· Each participant will describe what contributed to their success in waste reduction and recycling, and what other residents of King County can learn about how to contribute to the overall waste reduction goal.

WHEN: June 26

10 a.m. – press check-in

10:30 a.m. – event kick-off

WHO: Tom Watson, King County

Six Renton Neighbors

WHERE: 5205 NE 18^th Ct., Renton

WHY:

· Although most King County residents participate in their curbside recycling program, more than half of what ends up in the Cedar Hills regional landfill in King County is readily recyclable.

· Currently, 13 percent of newspaper, 35 percent of glass and 35 percent of mixed paper is still ending up in the landfill. In addition, 62 percent of tin cans, 46 percent of aluminum cans, and 60 percent of HDPE plastics (such as milk jugs) wind up in the trash.

· The average single-family household in King County throws away 10 pounds of food scraps every week.

Related Information

Recycle More. It's Easy to Do.

What do I do with ....?

King County Solid Waste