Out & About? Recycle With 1-800-CLEANUP
by Jennifer Berry
Published on March 27th, 2009
2 Comments
You may not know this fun fact, but Earth911.com actually started as a 1-800 number for recycling and disposal back in 1991. And even though we now, 18 years later, also have a snappy Web site, 1-800-CLEANUP is still a living legacy of which we’re quite proud.
Earth911.com recently relaunched 1-800-CLEANUP, and the number now provides a more efficient and streamlined way for consumers to find local recycling options via the phone. The hot line allows anyone with telephone access to search the same database you see on our site. Another fun fact: The database contains over 100,000 recycling and household hazardous waste collection locations for over 170 different materials.
While you can't use it to reach Batman or the Russian Prime Minister, 1-800-CLEANUP can help you be a hero by recycling in your local community. Photo: salotteries.com.au
When it comes to the hot line, we’re particularly excited about a few things:
- Our new search mechanism makes it easy for you to quickly enter and locate exactly what you’re looking to recycle.
- During its test phase, the new phone system resulted in a 33 percent reduction in call times.
- The hot line is bilingual in English and Spanish.
- We’ve taken the hot line to the “cloud,” using Twilio’s telephony system backed by Amazon Web Services.
- As many as 50,000 simultaneous calls can be made to the system without lowering performance. We’re serious – give it a try!
What really matters to us is that information about recycling and disposal is made available to everyone, not just our online readers. A study by Parks Associates said that 29 percent of all U.S. households (about 31 million) don’t have Internet access. But with 1-800-CLEANUP, everyone has a chance to be a steward of their local community.
So, whether you’re online or prefer to hot line, you can still be part of the movement to better our environment, one recycled bottle, can or newspaper at a time.
- Parks Associates(03/22/2007). "Offline Americans see Internet of Little Value" http://newsroom.parksassociates.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=3510.
Raquel Fagan
posted on March 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
The new 1-800-CLEANUP is not only better than the old one, but is also such a convenient way to get info on the road. I am really excited about this, and our development of Earth911.com Mobile.
Trey Granger
posted on April 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
For those who haven’t called, one of the cool features of this hot line is that you can automatically transfer the call to a recycler in your area. I know I always have questions when I recycle (Are there costs? Do I need to do anything to the product before recycling?) and it’s really convenient to connect directly with the recycler in the same phone call.