Brightside St. Louis

Words from the original cleaner and greener of St. Louis himself, former Mayor Vincent Schoemehl. And do they ever ring true!Brightside St. Louis, originally named Operation Brightside, was founded in 1982 by Mayor Schoemehl and campaign chairman G. Duncan Bauman, the then publisher of the St. Louis Globe Democrat. It was the response to a 1981 survey that was conducted in which St. Louis residents felt the number one problem facing the city was the fact that it was dirty.

Volunteers were required to sign up ten additional volunteers who would then each be required to sign up ten more volunteers. The eventual 100,000 volunteers would be both the brains and brawn for the effort that would start the cleaning and greening of the gateway city, filling trash bag after trash bag of litter and debris. The group’s original slogan was “Good neighbors teamed up to clean up St. Louis” – a phrase that stuck around until the recent rebranding efforts.“This is more than just a spring cleanup,” said Mayor Schoemehl more than 30 years ago. “We’ve spent five months putting together this concept. This will be a continuing effort to clean up the city…three years we can look back with some pride and satisfaction at what we’ve done.”Today, we like to think that we’ve carried through with our promise. Our initiative, born in the early 1980s, worked. With numerous new programs, and a city full of daffodils (millions upon millions in fact) that can attest to our success, Brightside St. Louis is here to stay.

At Brightside St. Louis, our mission is to improve the quality of life in our community by educating, engaging and inspiring St. Louisans to make our region cleaner, greener and more environmentally sustainable.Really, it’s that simple. But the only way we can proceed with our mission and truly make St. Louis a cleaner, greener, better place to live is with your help and support.The information and the fields to the right will help you get involved with a fantastic St. Louis organization that truly needs your help. Together, we can continue to make our region better than we found it.

Brightside’s Drop-off Center

Brightside offers recycling opportunities at our multi-material recovery facility operated by Earth Circle Recycling at 1660 S. Kingshighway.  Hours of operation are Monday-Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Aside from bottles, cans, paper and cardboard products, you can also recycle electronics and take advantage of Earth Circle’s paper shredding services.  Contact Earth Circle for pricing and details at 314-664-1450.

Recycling Outreach and Education

Brightside’s Recycling Team has created a strategic plan to help reach Mayor Francis G. Slay’s Sustainability Action agenda goal of doubling residential recycling in St. Louis by 2018. The team is developing and implementing new tools and projects aimed at increasing participation in the City’s single stream recycling program.This new effort is focused on teaching residents in the City of St. Louis about the “Blue Bin Basics” of recycling. These include: (1) always recycling common household items like paper, cardboard, and food or beverage bottles, cans and cartons in your blue bins; (2) never put plastic bags, Styrofoam or food waste in your blue bins; (3) keep recyclables loose, clean and dry; (4) always flatten cardboard. Following these steps can create tremendous benefits for the city and the entire region as recycling is proven to create and maintain jobs, protect the environment and provide health and social benefits.

Cleaning St. Louis

Brightside St. Louis, originally Operation Brightside, was founded in 1982 in a massive endeavor to clean up St. Louis. Now, 30 years and tons and tons of trash later, we’re still dedicated to a cleaner and greener St. Louis.Through initiatives like Blitz, our graffiti removal and eradication program and our recycling center, we are making St. Louis an even better and brighter place to live.Other cleaning initiatives include our “Litter Bugs Me! Stop it! Don’t drop it!” litter-awareness campaign and our “Lend Me A Hand Tool” program that assists clean-up efforts by providing tools and trash bags to those wanting to clean up their neighborhoods.