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City of Dallas, TX Sanitation Services:

Improving Its Programs One Step at a Time
With a “can-do” attitude and a city
slogan of “Live Large, Think Big™, the
By partnering with the private City of Dallas, TX has had a rich history of
sector to support community implementing innovative business strategies
and building its reputation in leadership and
programs as well as face progress. And it’s no different with its Sanitation
challenges as they come, the Services Department. The recycling program
City of Dallas’ Sanitation was established in the early 1990s when the
Services has been able to City of Dallas hired a recycling coordinator
to implement a recycling program for Dallas
grow and thrive. residents. In 2002, the program expanded further
when the mayor formed a task force to research
and make recommendations for its expansion
in an effort to increase participation. In 2003,
Dallas City council accepted the task force
recommendations to provide blue roll carts, go
to a single-stream recycling method and provide
a broad educational outreach. Since then, the
program has expanded from one employee to
a Waste Diversion Team of 10 and currently
services around 235,000 residential customers
with more than 1 million citywide. In addition
to weekly trash and recycling collection, the
Sanitation Services Department provides a wide
variety of other services, including bulk and
brush monthly curb collection, dead animal
collection, e-waste drop off sites, community
recycling sites, waste diversion public awareness
events, special event recycling, compost classes
and coordinate collection events for hard to
recycle items and household chemical waste.

Below A volunteer prepare televisions for trip to the processor.

Right: Dallas school students learn the importance of recycling
during a recent after school program.

Images courtesy of City of Dallas’ Sanitation Services.

18 WasteAdvantage Magazine May 2011
 Above: Former President George W. Bush takes time to learn about OneDay Dallas with Waste Diversion volunteers.
Left: Greenstar Recycling provides free shred service to Dallas residents at Roundup events.

Partnerships dealt with budget cuts and reduction in salary

Although the past few years have been a
challenge, the department is determined to
continue to use those bumps in the road as
stepping stones to improve its program. As
other companies and organizations across the
nation have experienced, the department has
and benefits for staff. However, they made a
plan to partner with private industry because
it provides additional support for their
public awareness and education program. As
a result, many have stepped up to support
the department’s programs. Explains Sheila

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20 WasteAdvantage Magazine May 2011


City of Dallas, TX Sanitation Services: Improving Its Programs One Step at a Time
Overton, Waste Diversion Manager, “Greenstar,
the city’s recycling processor, provides an
educational trailer as well as funding toward
community events. They were our lunch sponsor
for our Texas Recycles Day event last November
with more than 700 Dallas school students.
22 WasteAdvantage Magazine May 2011
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Samsung with support from Sharp, Toshiba and
Panasonic paid the processing costs associated with
recycling e-waste as a sponsor of our Stop, Drop &
WasteAdvantage
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Go program. AT&T provides volunteers for events
in addition to sponsoring giveaways. There are too
many to list all.” Because the Sanitation Services
Waste Diversion Specialist Katie Carlin helps a student
understand the importance of sustainability.
Department partnered with private companies, no
programs had to be cut and Overton hopes that
there will be ongoing partnerships even as the
economy improves. “Together we do it better!” she
says.
Community Outreach
Overton stresses that, currently, the biggest
issue they face is keeping people in the community
interested and excited about recycling in an effort
to increase tonnages collected and participation.
“We have increased our public education efforts and
believe this will return a positive behavior change.”
Not only does the department focus on teaching
the community about recycling, composting,
electronics recycling and how to reduce impacts
through home waste management, but they also
hosted a meeting with a representative from every
Dallas Independent School District facility to
educate them on their Environmental Education
Initiative, a free educational program provided to
every school within the City of Dallas to educate
students and faculty on what, how and why to
recycle.
In addition, the department works with
neighborhood groups and homeowner associations,
attends town hall meetings and neighborhood
events such as school carnivals and safety fairs,
and hosts an occasional peace rally and sit in. For
example, in April, the Waste Diversion Team
hosted a 1960s-style recycling rally at Whole

City of Dallas, TX Sanitation Services: Improving Its Programs One Step at a Time
Foods in Lakewood. The event was designed to
encourage attendance at the Spring Recycling
Roundup and promote environmental public
awareness. As a result, more than 8,000 residents
have diverted 852,904 tons to date through their
roundup efforts. In addition, the department has
most recently been awarded the Green Cities
Award in the largest city category at the 2011
Residential Recycling Conference because of their
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24 WasteAdvantage Magazine May 2011
Contents cannot be reprinted without permission from the publisher.
ability and strategic outreach to residents using a
variety of media outlets, such as Dallas Morning
News and popular television and radio shows,
automated phone bank calls, flyers at community
events, promotional plugs on the City of Dallas’
main Web site at www.dallascityhall.com and the
www.GreenDallas.net educational Web site, and
the City of Dallas Facebook page at www.facebook.
com/DallasCityHall.
630-910-2838
©2011 Waste Advantage Magazine, All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted from Waste Advantage Magazine.
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Dallas Mayor Caraway recycles his personal TV at the Stop,
Drop & Go kick off event.
However, Overton is most proud of the
department’s implementation of OneDay Dallas,
which is a weekly garbage and recycling service
for the city’s residents (www.onedaydallas.com).
In March of 2008, 23,000 homes kicked off the
program with city wide service by March of 2010.
Not only is once per week collection easier for
residents, but it also reduces the time garbage
trucks spend on city streets. The department
advertised with buses and billboards in order to
make residents aware of the coming changes. With
this program, residents went from twice weekly
garbage collection and every other week recycling
to the new and improved once weekly collection
of garbage and recycling together on the same
day. “Not only do residents find the service easier
and more efficient, but we have also experienced
an increase in our single-stream recycling that has
generated $3.5 million in revenue from the sale of
recyclables since January 2007,” says Overton.
As a result of these outreach programs and the
department’s constant involvement, 65 percent
of residents are currently participating in the
recycling program. The amount of waste in Dallas
has been reduced by more than 25 percent with
their waste diversion efforts.
Facing Challenges Head On
As the department continues to operate and
grow, Overton says that they will maintain
partnerships with private sector to support
community programs as well as face, head on,
challenges as they come, especially any budget cuts
that could affect service. She stresses, “Working
together to provide better programming and
services to our residents is what brings us together
as a city.” | WA
For more information, contact Sheila Overton, Waste
Diversion Manager, at (214) 670-3555 or call the
Waste Diversion hotline at (214) 670-4475.