Have you ever overfilled your curbside trash cart, or placed a plastic bag in the recycling bin? The Town of Queen Creek is launching a new outreach campaign to help residents understand the complexities of trash and recycling, and the impact on the environment.

Shut Your Lid is a comprehensive, multi-media campaign designed to educate, inform and encourage proper use of trash and recycling carts. Using light humor and helpful information, the Town hopes to educate residents about proper trash and recycling procedures, improve contamination rates, reduce the amount of trash on the streets, and increase awareness of the Town’s useful programs including bulk trash collection, cooking oil recycling and Household Hazardous Waste vouchers.

The first video addresses plastic bags, which should not be placed in curbside recycling carts. Plastic bags damage the recycling equipment as they get caught and cause the systems to jam; however, various stores provide plastic bag recycling. There are also many ways to re-use plastic bags, from cleaning up dog waste, to serving as small trash bags.

“We are very excited about this innovative campaign,” shared Queen Creek Mayor Gail Barney. “It is important that residents understand the reasoning behind our requests. This campaign does an outstanding job of explaining the ‘why’ in a fun and educational manner. I think we all want to work together to keep Queen Creek great for generations to come, and this is an important step towards that goal”.

The Town is currently partnering with local elementary schools, the East Valley Recycling Alliance (EVRA), Bashas’, Trex and Right Away Disposal (RAD) to “Bench the Bag.” Students at participating schools will be collecting plastic bags through this Friday to have them properly recycled.

For more information, please visit the Town of Queen Creek.