Sort Toss Roll program wins two Solid Waste Association of North America Awards

Summary

Phase one of the City of Nanaimo’s Sort Toss Roll program has been recognized in two award categories by the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) in their 2018 Excellence Awards.

SWANA describes the award winners as representing the most innovative and dynamic organizations throughout North America as judged by their peers.

The new automated collection service will be implemented in two phases. Phase one of the Sort Toss Roll service saw automated collection brought to over 8,000 residences in Central Nanaimo. The aim of the phase one communication strategy was to make residents in Central Nanaimo aware of imminent changes to their service while preparing residents in the rest of Nanaimo for changes coming the following year.

Link to Strategic Plan: Commitment to being an excellent municipal government.

Key Points

  • The City of Nanaimo has been recognized in two categories of SWANA Awards for Communication, Education and Marketing Excellence.
  • Winning silver for the Awareness Campaign category, the City was recognized for excellence in the creation and implementation of the education campaign to inform audiences of a program or project. Gold in this category was won by Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation and Bronze was won in a tie between the City of Hamilton and the City of Toronto.
  • Winning silver in the Communication, Education and Marketing Tools category, the City was recognized for excellence in the creativity of individual unique printed and digital resources to promote a program. This was a three-way tie shared between Nanaimo, Culver City, California and Niagara Region, Ontario.

Quotes

"Because the Sort Toss Roll project represented a big change to the way Solid Waste is collected in Nanaimo we opted to launch a fulsome communication and education campaign to let residents know what was in store. The Phase one campaign was a real success because we used multiple methods of reaching our residents including radio, online, newspaper, direct mail, interactive events and door hangers. It is a real honour to receive these awards from SWANA, especially when you review the standard of the fellow award winners."

Manager of Sanitation and Recycling
City of Nanaimo

"I gratefully acknowledge the leadership, teamwork and excellence demonstrated by City of Nanaimo staff including: Manager of Sanitation, Charlotte Davis and Communications staff; Tracy Loewen, Tammy Toor and Derek Johnstone in bringing this honour to Nanaimo."

Director of Public Works and Engineering
City of Nanaimo

Quick Facts

  • "Sort Toss Roll" is the name for the City's automated garbage, green bin and recycling curbside collection program.
  • Phase one of the Sort Toss Roll project was completed in Fall 2017. Phase two of the project is currently underway with residents in North and South Nanaimo due to receive their carts between mid June and mid July. The new service will be in place across all of Nanaimo by the end of July.
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Contact:

David Thompson
Manager of Sanitation and Recycling
City of Nanaimo
250 756 5307

Print News Release

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