Orlando makes commitment to be one of America's greenest cities

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - Officials announced on Monday that Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the city of Orlando have made a commitment to be one of America's greenest cities,  and in doing so, has begun implementing the Recycle Across America (RAA) nonprofit society-wide standardized labels on public recycling bins. 

The city says that inconsistent and often ineffective labels on bins through the United Sates have caused public confusion with recycling and resulted in millions of tons of garbage being thrown in recycling bins each year, which has subsequently caused China to stop purchasing U.S. recyclables. This has caused a collapse in U.S. recycling.

RAA is a nonprofit organization that created the society-wide standardized labels for recycling bins to solve the chronic public confusion and subsequent contamination crisis with recycling. Officials say the standardized labels are now displayed on recycling bins at Orlando's International Airport, public K-12 schools, hospitals, universities, city parks, and on street corners. Local business, such as Whole Food Markets, are also beginning to implement the standardized labels on their recycling bins.

The city says that standardized labels help reduce the cost of processing the recyclables and allow manufacturers in many industries to have access to high quality recycled commodities at competitive prices, thereby preventing the depletion of finite natural resources.

"We're proud that our residents, businesses, and visitors are committed to recycling and reducing our city's contributions to the landfill," said Mayor Dyer. "We are now using Recycle Across America's standardized labels on recycling bins in public spaces to make it less confusing and easier to recycle properly in Orlando."

Officials say that Mayor Dyer has joined television and film celebrities, Grammy award-winning musicians, athletes, and other government officials in the national 'Let's recycle right!' public service announcement (PSA) education campaign. The PSA appear as TV commercials and digital billboards coast to coast. The campaign works to help people recycle and is the largest campaign dedicated to recycling in U.S. history.