We strive to bring value to our customers and communities by combining outstanding service with sincere community engagement. Doing our part to support thriving, sustainable communities is an essential element of our approach to Sustainable Growth. To organize our efforts, we focus on three pillars of community engagement: community giving, employee volunteering, and educational outreach.

By contributing a combination of our time, knowledge, and resources, we aim to deliver the greatest possible impact to the largest number of people while moving forward, together.

Beyond servicing the resource management needs of our customers, Casella strives to give back to the local community. By supporting spring litter cleanups, contributing to charitable causes, funding youth scholarships, sponsoring neighborhood events, providing in-kind services in support of those in need, and so much more, each division team finds its own unique ways to create and share value.

Over the past two years, we have worked toward becoming more intentional about creating and sharing value through our community giving programs. We have improved our tracking programs and increased the coordination between our volunteering and giving efforts.

With this focus, we are working to grow our charitable donations, in-kind services, and local community sponsorships to achieve our 2030 goal of $2,000,000 in annual community giving.

The Casella Super Fan Box began as a passion project created through the joint effort of the Casella Care Team and local hauling divisions. The concept allows drivers and other Casella team members to provide exclusive merchandise to young fans along their routes or travels.

For many young children, their local driver provides a regular sense of joy and an example of hard work and dedication. Some may even consider them real life superheroes.

Each box includes items such as a child-size Casella baseball hat and safety vest, along with a toy recycling container, matchbox garbage truck, coloring book, and set of crayons.

Since the initial launch in early Summer 2021, the Super Fan boxes have taken on a life of their own spreading good cheer and the Casella brand both far and wide. From birthday parties and play dates to friendly random acts of kindness, more than 500 boxes have been ordered and delivered by various divisions throughout our region.

Each year, Casella employees complete a variety of community volunteering, education, and public service. They volunteer at animal shelters, serve at food cupboards, and mentor young people. They share their knowledge and expertise with countless schools, organizations, and non-profits. They do their part to create strong and supportive communities.

To strengthen and amplify the beneficial impact of employee volunteering, we have begun to record and celebrate these hours our people commit to the community. We encourage Casella employees to participate in at least one workday per year of volunteering, with a particular emphasis on sharing their recycling and sustainability expertise with their communities.

In 2020, we committed to round out our set of sustainability goals by establishing a public target for employee volunteer hours. With this year’s report, we are pleased to announce that by 2030 we aim to be contributing 24,000 volunteer hours per year in the communities we serve.

Throughout this report, we have presented our vision for sustainable materials management within our communities. As we work to invent and build the necessary services and infrastructure, we know that sharing our knowledge and expertise across our operating footprint will help us to achieve our long-term vision.

Each year, we share our technical knowledge by participating in community events, visiting local schools, offering facility tours, serving on industry panels, meeting with municipal governments, testifying to state-level leaders, and more. We deliver education in the digital community through our Beyond the Bin podcasts, social media posts, blog entries, and more.

In 2021, we launched our new Resource Rover, which delivers fun, hands-on learning experiences for people of all ages.

The Casella Resource Rover is an interactive educational tool that informs and educates audiences on what we can do together to Recycle Better™. Made from a repurposed shipping container, the Resource Rover is an educational arcade on wheels, containing two games and four interactive displays, complete with a life-size garbage truck cab!