Keep America Beautiful and the National Association of Convenience Stores have partnered to produce the new resource, “Being a Good Neighbor: A Guide to Reducing Litter, Managing Trash and Encouraging Recycling.”

The guide provides quick and easy tips for convenience stores to improve their customers’ experience, help the environment and, ultimately, enhance their reputation and bottom line.

It includes information from Keep America Beautiful’s landmark “Litter in America” research from 2009—comprised of the “National Visible Litter Survey” and “Litter Cost Study”—as well as from jointly developed consumer and retailer surveys and audits conducted this year by NACS and Keep America Beautiful.

The guide includes a checklist to examine litter management practices at convenience stores as well as practical tips to help retailers reduce and ultimately eliminate litter in and around their stores.

 It also provides recommendations for recycling bin and trash receptacle placements to help make proper disposal of packaging items easy and accessible. And retailers also share techniques to engage employees, customers and the greater community.

“With convenience stores comprising 34 percent of all retailer business, convenience store operators can play an instrumental role in providing customers with convenient trash and recycling containers to lessen litter and improve recycling at their locations,” said Brenda Pulley, Keep America Beautiful’s senior vice president, recycling. “Keep America Beautiful is pleased to team up with the NACS to provide best practices for managing trash and recycling with the new ‘Being a Good Neighbor’ guide.”

According to Keep America Beautiful research, the most people properly dispose of trash in receptacles. But nearly one in five disposals (17 percent) ends up as litter. Packaging, including fast food, snack, beverage and tobacco packaging, comprises nearly half (47 percent) of items in the “visible” litter stream, according to Keep America Beautiful research.

Meanwhile, NACS research shows that consumers overwhelmingly say that convenience store appearance is important: 84 percent of consumers fueling up say cleanliness of the store is an important factor when considering whether they will shop at a particular store.

The new resource guide shares best practices that help retailers manage waste to keep their properties clean, including placement and design of trash receptacles.

“Litter impacts how people perceive your brand, even if they litter a cup with your logo on it somewhere else,” said Lisa Dell’Alba, one of the many retailers surveyed for the guide. Dell’Alba is president & CEO of Square One Markets (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) and a member of the NACS Board of Directors.

Also highlighted in the Guide are Rutter's Farm Stores and Sheetz stores.

Click Here for a copy of the Guide.

For more information on programs, initiatives and special events, visit the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful website. Click Here to become a member.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from KPB, Like them on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, Discover them on Pinterest and visit their YouTube Channel.

Also visit the Illegal Dump Free PA website for more ideas on how to clean up communities and keep them clean and KPB’s new Electronics Waste website.

NewsClips:

AP: Philadelphia City Council Toughens Illegal Dumping Penalties

State Efforts Help Growing PA Towns Build Curbside Recycling Programs

Rep. Kaufer Announces E-Waste Recycling Event In Luzerne

[Posted: Oct. 16, 2017]

10/23/2017