Partner Spotlight: Mission, BC

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The small city of Mission is home to over 42,000 residents in a forested area of British Columbia, Canada. Their motto, “The Future • Our Mission” is one that the local government takes seriously. Under the Recycle BC Program—an organization that employs Extended Producer Responsibility policies—the city has restrictions on what they can collect and are required to keep their curbside recycling contamination rate at 5% or below.

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‍Reducing Contamination Levels

‍When Tracy Pagenhardt, Environmental Coordinator at the City of Mission, started her role in 2022, the city’s contamination levels were at 9.71%. As a result, Mission was required to enter into a contamination remediation plan with Recycle BC to lower contamination rates to avoid any further repercussions.

Working with Recycle Coach, they expanded their outreach efforts and put to use a data-driven strategy guided by the results they were able to see from the Client Portal. They utilized social media, creating reels to push the “What Goes Where” search tool, the Recycle RIGHT game, and signing up for direct notifications. And at the end of two years, their contamination rates had dropped to 4.46%—well below the Recycle BC requirement.

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‍Outside-the-Box Outreach Efforts

‍Mission’s outreach strategy goes beyond digital. Close relationships with their contractor and their boots-on-the-ground crew are important for getting important information straight from the source. The data obtained from their knowledge contributes to educational efforts and campaigns.

In 2022, they redesigned their summer student program, where they perform flip tests—inspections in community bins to track residents’ problem waste areas. This initiative has now grown into their Star Recycler Program, where the students use an iPad and GIS software to report with standardized methodology.

After inspecting, the students place a sticker on the bin. This sticker is decorated with different icons that the students can circle to indicate areas of improvement. If a bin has too many contaminants, it’s removed from the curb so it won’t be collected. But the coveted prize is the Star Recycler Sticker, which is given to those who are recycling their waste properly. This sticker has a QR code that enables residents to enter into a draw for a $25 downtown business gift card, which provides positive reinforcement for residents and supports local businesses.

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‍App Usage

‍In 2024,the last year that Mission was in the contamination remediation plan, Recycle Coach app usage was continuing to grow:

• Resident “What Goes Where” searches had increased by 22%
• The city had sent out 12,000 direct notifications
• The Recycle RIGHT game was played 26,500 times for a total of 43 hours

Backed by robust data from the Recycle Coach Client Portal, they were able to quantify all their education and outreach efforts and utilize targeted messaging that is based on high volume contaminants and households that have higher contamination rates.

“Instead of just throwing out social media campaigns and print and just hoping that somebody we want to read it is reading it," Tracy explains, "we can actually target the people that are using the app and reach demographics that we may not be able to reach throughother traditional means.”

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‍Recommendations from Tracy

1. Celebrate your successes and congratulate your community on their wins.
2. Focus on the key behaviours that are going to result in the change you require.
3. Don’t try to fix every single problem; you’re never going to get a 100% clean blue bin.
4. Determine the top contaminants you want to remove and figure out that key messaging.
5. When you’re working on a communication outreach plan, know the dashboard and track your data; if you’re not seeing what works and what doesn’t, you don’t know how successful your efforts are.
6. Identify technology gaps and how you can best reach your residents. 

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