Outagamie County, WI Recycling and Solid Waste‘s video demonstrates, in a humorous way, that people shouldn鈥檛 recycle Christmas lights because it tangles recycling machines. It shows an employee, 鈥淧hilthy Philm,鈥� angrily untangling the lights from a machine and putting them into a proper drop-off bin. In two days the video has more than a million views, giving a big boost to Outagamie County Recycling and Solid Waste鈥檚 popularity.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we knew it was going to go viral. We always joke like 鈥楢h, we鈥檙e going viral, we鈥檙e going viral鈥� and then it happened I鈥檓 like 鈥極h my goodness guys we went viral,鈥欌�� said Marissa Michalkiewicz, Recycling and Solid Waste Program Coordinator. Marissa Michalkiewicz says Recycling and Resource Recovery Administrator Alex Nett approached her about starting a TikTok account a few weeks ago, aiming to use it as an educational tool.
Employees play characters in the videos, like 鈥淧hilthy Philm,鈥� putting a persona on the industry. 鈥淗is real name is Phil, so it鈥檚 a play on words 鈥楶hilthy Philm,鈥欌�� said Nett. 鈥淎 lot of people referred to Phil as the 鈥榓ngry recycle man鈥� so making that connection that it鈥檚 more than just, you put it at the end of your curb and it disappears, that there鈥檚 people who actually involved in that and who have to handle it and see it.鈥�
Other characters include 鈥淒irty Dan the Loader Man鈥� and 鈥淟eadpoint Luke.鈥� Michalkiewicz says they often refer to each other by their new nicknames now. 鈥淲e just work with an incredible group of people,鈥� said Michalkiewicz. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why they agreed to do these videos with me but I鈥檓 very thankful, otherwise this would鈥檝e went absolutely nowhere.鈥�