Olivia Rhodes had no idea she’d be peeking in businesses’ waste and recycle containers this summer, but she said it’s well-worth it.

“We’re, like, making a difference,” said Rhodes. “That’s exactly what I wanted to do this summer.”

The college student is one of 10 interns in Waste Management’s 2015 Recycle Corps program assigned to Renton to do recycling education and outreach with businesses and residents. They are part of a large-scale recycling education project to reach all of Renton’s commercial businesses in the last week of June.

The team is also supposed to do an intense recycling audit and education project with Gene Sen’s restaurants and the Renton Chamber of Commerce.

On July 2, Rhodes and her fellow intern Adam Ellner went from business to business in the Renton Plaza area, checking recycle bins and trying to chat up business owners on recycling services.

They check the bins to see what owners are throwing away and what makes it into recycling, then they offer recycling education and workshops for business employees.

“It really feels like we’re making a difference in the community, especially when we get people who are really excited and really want to do good and conserve these natural resources, but maybe don’t have the opportunity right now to recycle,” Ellner said.

In recent years, Renton has been doing better when it comes to recycling, according to Robin Freedman, senior communications manager for Waste Management.

The city has increased its commercial recycling by two percent since last year. That two percent represents 50 tons – or the equivalent of the weight of about three elephants – being diverted from the refuse stream and recycled into new materials and saving landfill space, said Freedman.

The efforts are mostly about trying to make sure that business owners are making the best use of the services they already have. The City of Renton and Waste Management have teamed up to provide these free recycling and education materials and services. In the city, recycling is included in garbage service.

“So if they do have recycling service, making sure that they know they can put more than cardboard in. They can put all the other stuff in it,” Joel Kohlstedt, referring to items such as paper, plastic bottles, aluminum, tin cans and glass bottles and jars.

He does public education and outreach for Waste Management for the Pacific Northwest Area. Some businesses are not aware that more than just cardboard and paper can go into the recycling cart or dumpster, he said.

“And giving them tips to set up best for that, whether it’s making sure they have enough recycling service or enough garbage service and we can adjust their container size, if that would be helpful,” he said.

The Recycle Corps College Internship Program is over at the end of August. Kohlstedt and his Public Education and Outreach team continue the work throughout the year.

For more educational materials or to sign up for a site visit for business recycling workshop, email recyclenw@wm.com or contract Waste Management Customer Service at 1-800-592-9995.