<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"NYC Media, the official network of the City of New York, and how-to video network Howcast have created a series of instructional recycling videos that will be broadcast on the City's flagship television station and NYC Life (Channel 25), online at nyc.gov/media and, most interestingly, via QR codes featured on the sides of roughly 2,200 New York City Department of Sanitation trucks.\nNew York City residents can use the QR code readers installed on their smartphones to pull up the instructional videos. A segment from NYC Media's show The Green Apple: Recycling is currently on display; Howcast's recycling videos will appear in the next six to eight weeks.\nWhile the placement of QR codes in magazines and on urban billboards makes some sense, even if most people do not have smartphones with QR code readers installed, I have to question the City's decision to place the codes on garbage trucks. Thematically it may be a natural match, but it's just not reasonable to expect people to run up to the trucks with their noses covered, phones in hand \u2014 or, even less practicably, to try to scan the codes while driving or zipping by in a cab.\nThe placement of the codes was likely determined less by thematic considerations than economic ones, however. The Department of Sanitation has suffered eight consecutive budget cuts in the past few years, which has taken a serious toll on its public outreach and education funds. It costs the City very little to put the codes on trucks they already own versus, say, a prominent billboard in Times Square.\nIt also allows the City to continuously change the messages attached to the codes without having to physically adjust each display. We can't imagine, however, that residents will scan the codes month after month, hoping for more, uh, recycling videos.\nWhat do you think of the City's use of QR codes? Do you feel that their placement on the sides of sanitation trucks is the best, most economically efficient way to get the message out about recycling?\nSample Recycling Video\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[img credit: Finding Josephine]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/qr-codes-nyc-sanitation-trucks/>