Amtrak’s The Great Sort

In celebration of Earth Day, Amtrak hosted The Great Sort, an event focused on promoting and educating the public  about sustainability, at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. At The Great Sort, our Amtrak representatives sorted through station trash to identify the location’s largest source of waste and separate recyclable material. TerraCycle, a local company dedicated to hard-to-recycle waste, joined the event and provided “zero waste” boxes to collect these recyclables and give them a new life.

Amtrak passengers were involved in The Great Sort, receiving information on best practices for recycling both off and on-board. We also shared information on our national industrial recycling practices and data on our greenhouse gas emissions, as we are the most energy efficient travel option by emitting less CO2 per mile when compared to air or car.

This Earth Day event diverted bags of items from The Great Sort to create a profile of 30th Street Station’s waste, allowing us to better understand how our passengers treat waste and identify areas for improvement. All data will be used to help us achieve the corporate goal of increasing our recycling rate to 20% by 2020.