How can a waste system reshape our relationship with recycling?

2015-16 | Downtown Recycling System Vision Study

Kansas City’s recycling system doesn’t cover downtown multifamily and commercial uses producing an unsustainable diversion rate of 27% that is significantly behind its national and regional peers. The purpose of this project was to generate a comprehensive vision study for the recycling system for the downtown area which would center on an urban design perspective aimed at integrating recycling into public realm as its physical and programmatic attribute, and a constituting element of its aggregate design quality. In order to achieve that, the project had to engage a substantive research on the range of issues including waste audits; device ways to correlate incompatible data formats and generate analytical studies; address political issues and test policy scenarios; consider cradle to cradle and closed loop material resources management issues; plan and design overall recycling system for the target area and provide detailed design studies for the constituting elements of the system.

This project was generously supported by funds from the MARC Solid Waste Management District and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. For more information on recycling resources and waste reduction efforts in the region, please visit the MARC Solid Waste Management District website: http://www.marc.org/Environment/Solid-Waste/

For more information on this project, please see our publications listed below.