06/10/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/10/2025 07:16
Join your Iowa City community in pledging to reduce plastic use this July! To participate, follow the steps below.
It costs no money to participate in the pledge. Pledging connects you with resources for suggested actions to take during the month that reduce your use of plastic bags, bottles, utensils, and other single-use plastics.
As a participant, you'll receive six helpful emails from Iowa City's Recycling Coordinator that provide tips, motivation, and resources to support your plastic-free journey. Emails will be sent from late June through early August. Take the pledge at our website.
Track simple, voluntary actions all month long to show the impact. View suggested actions at https://www.icgov.org/reduce.
During the four weeks in July, tracking your weekly actions is optional, but helpful to better understand the community impact of this program. More information on how to track your actions will be provided in the first email to participants.
Iowa City is celebrating plastic waste reduction because most plastic is not recyclable. Even recyclable plastic can only be recycled a few times before it can no longer be recycled and needs to be landfilled. Plastic makes up about 14% of the materials going into the Iowa City Landfill. This equates to over 18,000 tons of plastic waste every year. The best thing we can do is to reduce our use of plastic by using reusable or alternative materials.
For more information, please visit https://www.icgov.org/reduce or contact the City's Recycling Coordinator at jwilch@iowa-city.org.