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U.S. EPA'S RECYCLE CITY WEB SITE FOR KIDS GOES LIVE ON EARTH DAY

Release Date: 4/22/1997
Contact Information: Randy Wittorp , U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1589

     SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency celebrated Earth Day today by unveiling its new  'Recycle City' interactive Web site for kids at a special event at the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland.  The site, accessible around the world at https://www.epa.gov/recyclecity, is an educational and entertaining journey through a town full of colorful characters who have a passion for cutting back on waste in their cartoon community.

     "Recycle City is a fun and especially engaging way for kids to learn about how their communities can reduce waste and prevent pollution from happening," said Felicia Marcus, regional administrator for U.S. EPA's western region.  "It's really a marvel to be able to reach so many kids and classrooms with a project like this.  EPA is very excited about the boundless potential of the Web as a tool for making information available to schools, businesses and concerned individuals everywhere."

     Exploring Recycle City is an easy way to learn about the three R's -- reduce, reuse and recycle.  Designed primarily for middle-school students, it's a lively point-and-click journey for all ages that demonstrates how individuals, businesses and communities can work together to cut waste.  The user explores the town by simply clicking on any of Recycle City's colorful schools, businesses, homes, or waste centers.  He or she can then point and click on people or activities within that location to learn about what the diverse cast of residents are doing every day to reduce waste and cut down on pollution in their town.

     The Web site also features the innovative, animated Dumptown Game, in which the player takes on the role of City Manager and creates his/her own plan to reduce waste and clean up trashy Dumptown.  By examining what makes up the waste stream and selecting different programs based on their benefits and costs -- and seeing in colorful graphs the clear impacts on the waste stream and the budget -- the player takes part in a decision making exercise that gives new depth to the topic.

     The Recycle City project was led by Bill Glenn of U.S. EPA Region 9's Office of Communication and Government Relations in San Francisco, with support from Katharine Kaplan and Chris Reiner of Region 9's Solid Waste Program.  Deb Clifford, head of Style Communications in San Francisco, developed the concept and handled writing and research, while Edwin Gore and Brian Colwell did the considerable programming and game design work for Style.  The original artwork for Recycle City was done by Phil Frank, Sausalito resident and creator of the San Francisco Chronicle's daily comic strip, 'Farley.'

     Recycle City is part of the EPA Web site, which can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov . The home page for Region 9 information on the Web is https://www.epa.gov/region09 .

     The Web site was unveiled at a special Earth Day event at the Oakland Museum of California's  'Hello Again: A New Wave of Recycled Art and Design' exhibit.  The exhibit, a fascinating collection of innovative and often surprising products and pieces of art created from recycled and reused materials, features more than 900 items arranged in 12 tableaux resembling department store windows by guest curator Susan Subtle Dintenfass.  The show will run at the Oakland Museum through July 27 before moving to Los Angeles this fall.


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