4 Things You Should Do to Reduce Holiday Waste Collection Change Chaos

Holidays can easily go from enjoyable to frustrating with multiple residents calling in about their collection schedule or complaining that their collection was missed.

Here’s how to avoid confusion from holiday changes to your waste collection schedule:

1. Make sure residents can easily find information about holiday collection changes on your website.

There’s a big difference between just putting information on your website and making that information easy to find for your residents.

Especially with shrinking attention spans nowadays, residents will leave a website when they can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. Instead, they will likely just pick up the phone to call.

Ask yourself, if you were a resident, what would you search? Which municipal webpages are you most likely to come across during that search? Now check to see if those webpages do contain the information about holiday collection changes (it should).

2. Get savvy with social media.

Use platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to get your message across, especially since 81% of all Americans use social media! With such a large portion of the population online, you’ll be able to easily reach many of your residents relatively quickly. Use appealing images to attract attention and keep the text short and straight to the point (i.e. ‘No recycling collection on Tues, July 4. Recycling collections have been moved to July 5.’)

Don’t be afraid to post multiple times leading up to the holiday – this is true especially for Twitter, where Tweets are relevant for a few minutes.

3. Provide a personalized collection schedule for your residents using Recycle Coach.

Residents can use the intuitive, user-friendly web app on your website or a mobile app to view their collection schedules for the year. They’ll be able to set reminders and see any holiday collection changes far in advance so they can prepare for it. That way, they’ll know about the changes even if they missed all your announcements on social media or postings on your website.

4. Send real-time notifications to your residents’ mobile phone through Recycle Coach.

You can send any custom message as a real-time notification straight to your resident’s mobile phone (in-app notification, text, or voicemail), e-mail inbox, or Twitter. This is especially helpful for residents who have not set any collection reminders that would otherwise remind them of the change.

Notifications can also be used to inform and educate your residents on other issues – for example, sending a message to your residents encouraging them to use recyclable or reusable dishware instead of Styrofoam™.

If you do these four things, you’ll reduce the likelihood of residents missing their collection day so everyone can have a more enjoyable holiday.