91TV

Charlotte Pitt

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Northwest Arkansas is home to more than half a million people and one of the fastest-growing economic and cultural hubs in the United States. As more residents flock to the area, they need a better program to adequately capture and process the additional recycled material.

The Recycling Partnership’s shows Northwest Arkansas residents believe recycling is the right thing to do, and many are already in the habit of doing it. However, only about 52% are satisfied with local recycling services, which is well below the national average of 74%.

That’s why, in 2025, The Recycling Partnership identified an opportunity to expand the reach of recycling services and strengthen the region’s capacity with a local supply chain of secondary materials and end markets. After meeting with local leaders, solid waste districts, and everyday citizens to better understand the system’s current challenges, The Partnership developed the , a detailed plan to build a better recycling system for the region and boost both recycling participation and the amount of recyclable material collected by 25% by 2030.

The Northwest Arkansas Recycling Roadmap identified four key enabling factors to drive lasting recycling system change:

1. Systemwide collaboration
2. Political buy-in
3. Financial commitment
4. Data

One year in, partners across Northwest Arkansas have put these building blocks in place by bringing together leaders, investing in solutions, expanding access, and using data to guide decisions. Progress made in this region can act as a blueprint for other areas across the country to bolster the recycling system.

Systemwide Collaboration + Political Buy-In

Because the recycling system is inherently decentralized, with a complex network of 9,000+ separate local recycling programs that process billions of pounds of material each year, implementing system-level changes is challenging. Aligning on a roadmap first is critical. Key businesses and local governments must coordinate and build trust through mutually beneficial partnerships.

At the same time, elected officials and government leaders must champion these changes to establish long-term stability. Political leadership signals commitment and creates an enabling environment for cross-sector collaboration, public engagement, and enforcement mechanisms.

Here’s how The Recycling Partnership garnered political buy-in in Northwest Arkansas:

• A monthly regional Steering Committee was established to bring together local government and regional leaders as well as elected officials to guide implementation and identify future needs.
• Collaboration between Northwest Arkansas’ two regional solid waste districts is being facilitated to explore opportunities for greater alignment and efficiency.
• Arkansas communities using the now have access to expanded resources, including tools and materials developed specifically to support recycling programs across the state.

A sturdy foundation allows The Partnership and key stakeholders to work together and move toward strategy implementation.

Financial Commitment

In many cases, the biggest hurdle for improving recycling infrastructure is often the upfront investment. There is no one simple low-cost, high-yield magic fix for every recycling system in the U.S., but solutions are needed quickly because Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies are already being implemented across several states. Simply put, EPR requires the brands and companies, or producers, that produce packaging to pay into a statewide fund to help cover the costs of their materials. That money goes directly into modernizing local sorting facilities, expanding access to curbside recycling carts, and protecting local waste collection rates from global market crashes. If certain materials don’t meet specific thresholds, producers could face fines and some materials could face bans. This means the pressure is on to close recycling gaps for these materials by improving design, access, public engagement, processing, and end markets.

While Arkansas does not have any EPR legislation in the works, 1 in 5 Americans do live in states with EPR policies. Providing strategic grants and targeted technical support to help communities expand access, increase participation, and strengthen recycling infrastructure is essential for creating a blueprint for how to approach recycling challenges in both Northwest Arkansas and around the country.

In this first year alone, the Northwest Arkansas Roadmap has led to investment in several communities that produced tangible results:

1. The Boston Mountain Solid 91TV District (BMSWD) in , with support from The Recycling Partnership, launched a multifaceted education campaign to strengthen recycling participation. This included physical mailers and digital ads to boost engagement in households, providing in-home and curbside recycling pickup, and education about what is and is not recyclable. Early results show a 23% increase in household set-out recycling rates, the average number of carts on the curb at any one time, and a 6% reduction in unacceptable materials. Now that we know what resonates with Springdale residents, we can update designs and develop messaging that provides transparency and builds trust to further improve recycling rates and divert unacceptable materials.
2. Together with two funding partners, The Partnership granted $1.6 million to deploy universal carts and extensive education to residents. This included residents trading in their two green 18-gallon bins for a single, large 35, 65, or 95-gallon blue cart where they can place more accepted recyclable materials. Alongside each cart, residents received a packet of information about what can and can’t be recycled. Just one month following the launch, the community saw a 37% increase in materials collected.
3. Despite Siloam Springs’ pay-as-you-throw pricing structure and quality recycling education, less than 35% of households were participating. A new multifamily recycling program will launch in October, with improvements for single-family homes still actively being developed.

To meet the Northwest Arkansas Roadmap’s goal of a 25% increase in participation and tons collected by 2030, it is estimated that roughly $53 million needs to be invested in the region. This is where programs like make an impact. The fund gives producers a practical way to invest in community programs, with the knowledge that their investment is backed by experience, data, and real-world testing.Ìý Financial support helps clear one of the largest roadblocks in systemic recycling change, and allows communities like Springdale, Fayetteville, and Siloam Springs to take action.

Data-Driven Decision Making

The best decisions are backed by data, but when data isn’t available, necessary technical support needs to be provided to make it more readily available. In Northwest Arkansas, the municipalities are responsible for providing waste and recycling services to their communities. The leaders of these communities do their best to negotiate with waste haulers, but with little to no background in recycling, the contracts may not include things like data reporting requirements that provide key insights to improve the system. It can also create different levels of service that vary from community to community.

Providing these communities with technical support helps them align with waste haulers on better contracts. Outside of ensuring that quality recycling services are being provided, it also allows reporting requirements to be added that help collect vital data and chart a course for further recycling system improvements.

For example, The Partnership has awarded a $45,000 Technical Service grant to Highfill, Arkansas. This will support universal recycling beginning in January 2027, in an area that previously didn’t offer curbside recycling. This will impact 1,600 households with the potential of capturing an estimated 300 additional tons of recycling annually, providing both recycling access and the ability to collect data. Likewise, technical recommendations are also being provided to Centerton and Pea Ridge, Arkansas, to create data reporting requirements that help these communities better understand how many residents are recycling.

While these projects can seem small, they are vital to the overall health of the regional recycling system. They ensure each decision, from who is at the table to the size of recycling carts, is grounded in data, expertise, and real-world insight, strengthening both local programs and the system as a whole.

Continuing the Momentum

The first year of the Northwest Arkansas Roadmap has focused on building the partnerships, investments, and infrastructure needed for long-term progress. Now, the region is set up for year two, where The Partnership will continue to focus on providing technical services for residential programs, develop an in-depth regional processing strategy, continue to strengthen regional recycling engagement, and deploy more multifamily projects.

Year two is also when establishing end market support will be vital to ensuring materials have a place to go once they are recycled. Currently, most of the material collected and sorted in Northwest Arkansas is sold out-of-state or to international markets. Investing in local end market development to support the use of local, recycled materials can reduce transportation costs and fuel regional economic growth.

This is especially relevant as Arkansas is one of the most rural states in the country, with living in rural areas. So, while Northwest Arkansas may be considered an outlier, this roadmap is still replicable. When regional recycling capacity is built in rural areas, it can create localized manufacturing supply chains, cut municipal landfill costs, and generate stable jobs that can’t be outsourced elsewhere. Complementary to these efforts, Congress is advancing major, bipartisan legislation to overhaul America’s recycling system. In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee moved forward a legislative package that combines the (RIAA) and the (RCAA) to address rural infrastructure and poor recycling data, two of the biggest roadblocks for a circular economy.

Gathering the right partners for discussion, planning, and action can be one of the toughest challenges, but it is also critical to making real change. Progress in Northwest Arkansas would not have been possible without the contributions of key project partners, including the Northwest Arkansas Council, municipal partners, and participating private companies. We highlight the types of partners not only to recognize their work, but also to show the breadth of collaboration needed to create real, tangible change across the recycling system.

No single company, community, or policy can solve recycling’s toughest challenges alone. The Recycling Partnership brings together the right people, unmatched insight, and a clear plan to get things done. In Northwest Arkansas, that approach is already turning strategy into action.

Now, the work needs continued commitment. Businesses, community leaders, and policymakers can help move the Northwest Arkansas Recycling Roadmap forward by investing in infrastructure, providing sustained leadership, and supporting policies like the RIAA and RCAA that can unlock additional resources for the region. The opportunity is clear: build on the momentum already underway and turn a shared roadmap into lasting system change.

Charlotte Pitt is Vice President of Community Development for The Recycling Partnership, where she works closely with communities to develop and fund projects that strengthen local recycling systems. She also leads The Partnership’s regional projects, including in Northwest Arkansas, bringing communities and partners together around shared strategies to improve recycling access, participation, and performance. Charlotte has nearly three decades of experience growing and improving public recycling programs at both the state and municipal levels. Prior to joining The Partnership, she spent more than two decades with the City and County of Denver, where she led the implementation and improvement of waste diversion services and policies. Her work included standardizing and automating residential waste collection, implementing universal cart-based and single-stream recycling, prioritizing community outreach and education, developing a robust suite of organics diversion services, and advocating for pay-as-you-throw policy. She can be reached at [email protected].