Consultants with Resource Recycling Systems gave tips on developing effective messaging to reach residents. | Michael Vi/Shutterstock
Effective recycling programs rely heavily on human behavior, which can be very hard to change. But developing a targeted strategy to educate residents – whether in a small rural area or a bustling metropolis – is an integral part of this process.
Industry experts including consultants with Resource Recycling Systems provided practical advice and real-world examples of education campaigns during the Resource Recycling Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, late last year.
Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, RRS works with local governments, trade groups and the private sector to reach their waste management and recycling goals.
Effective communication can be elusive and subjective, said panelist Samantha Kappalman, a senior consultant at RRS with nearly three decades of experience in behavior change, policy and public affairs. “We think we’ve said X – and we did – but we might not have said it enough, or we may not have said it in plain-enough language or an easy-to-understand way,” she said.
Before any resident education effort, communicators must start by assessing the scope of the project, according to Joel Schoening, a senior consultant at RRS who specializes in public affairs, strategic planning, communications and stakeholder engagement for environmental policy initiatives and campaigns.
This is especially true for communicators in local government, who often perform multiple roles and may not be trained in communications or education, he said. In any case, a key framework for starting any messaging campaign is to use SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
For the achievable part of the equation, consider whether communications is the best department or avenue to reach the goal, he said. For instance, if the size or shape of recycling carts is causing problems with recycling participations, a facilities and operations department or a hauler’s team would be better able to handle the issue than a communications team.
“A lot of people will default to education as a solution, and before you take that on as a communicator, be conscious of what can be accomplished,” Schoening said. Kappalman added that if someone else is supplying the goals, “don’t let them tell you it’s achievable when you know that it’s not.”
Next, communicators must determine:
- The intended audience for the message.
- A time frame for the project.
- What tactics to use.
- How to measure success
Know your audience
Of course, the intended audience is closely linked to the goal of a campaign, which is typically known from the start. For example, a contamination issue may be originating in one specific area of the community, Schoening said.
In Oregon, when one community was placing recyclables in bags before putting them in their bins, further exploration revealed that one specific area was very windy and bin items were blowing away, and another subset of the community was being told to bag the items. In this case, the same issue required messages addressing two separate causes, he said.
Along those lines, said Kappalman, a crucial consideration is what barriers exist that are preventing residents from achieving the organization’s goals. For instance, a community with a higher concentration of older adults might have lower participation in curbside recycling. In this case, mobility issues could be preventing residents from moving carts to the curb, or a housing complex could be too tightly spaced for curbside carts, she said.
Language barriers can also be more complex than they first appear. A community may have many Spanish speakers, but understanding their precise origins can make a big difference, she said, with variations in dialect among, say, Puerto Rico, Spain and a country in South America.
“If we don’t ask questions, we’re not going to find out what those answers are,” Kappalman said, adding that understanding people’s motivations and barriers is crucial for “getting people from point A to point B.”
Questions can also help determine the best way to reach an audience. Free survey websites such as Survey Monkey can work, but not for an entire population, panelists agreed. For older residents who may not be active on the internet, they suggested asking senior centers how to effectively reach their clients.
As far as a time frame for a messaging plan, communicators often may have that provided to them in the form of a budget, said Schoening. And before the plan begins, a communicator must establish baseline data to be able to later measure the plan’s effectiveness.
With the limited budgets common to municipalities, if a communicator can afford to pay for just one thing, Kappalman highly recommended geo-targeting social media posts to the intended community.
Components of effective messages
Schoening also advised communicators to avoid jargon – for example, “tangler” is not a term a layperson knows. If in doubt, ask your next-door neighbor if they know what a term means, he suggested.
What people are doing when they see a message is another important consideration when determining the most effective medium to use. A refrigerator magnet is ideal for an infographic that residents can study at their leisure, for example, while a cart tag should be brief.
Providing multiple ways to receive the message helps to increase the likelihood it is seen and to reinforce the message. People need to hear a message seven to 10 times to remember it, Kappalman said.
Regardless of its size, a message needs to reach people where they are, said Elisa Seltzer, a senior consultant with RRS. Seltzer helps communities develop and improve recycling and composting programs and cultivate public-private partnerships. She also serves as the NextCycle Michigan program lead.
Smaller, more rural communities may find success with local religious groups – for example, newsletters could be distributed at religious services, or a religious leader may be willing to work the message of recycling into their sermon, Seltzer said.
Another option is to include a flier containing a positive, “can-do” message in residents’ tax bills, “since everyone opens that one piece of mail,” she said.
Everything that works in smaller communities works in bigger ones, too, said Annie White, a senior consultant at RRS whose experience includes waste prevention, reuse and recycling, composting and reducing contamination. White previously acted as director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
Bouncing ideas or wording off of various colleagues or neighbors can provide a free way to see whether the message resonates with people outside of the immediate office, the panelists said.
Other innovative marketing efforts have included:
- Sponsoring a community resident’s race car.
- Advertising at a local hockey rink.
- Printing a message in the playbill at the local community theater.
- Using vinyl printed wraps for city trucks, cars or vans.
Consistent branding also helps solidify a message, the panelists said. Aligning colors, logos and other marketing elements helps residents realize there’s a system at play.
Seltzer recommended pairing the action you want with where people are: collecting plastic bottle collection at the county fair or Thanksgiving turkey trot, for instance, or collecting food scraps at the farmers market. When her municipality began recycling cartons, they placed signs and other messaging where people shopped for cartons, where they recycled and where they got their information – in groceries, curbside and online.
In a unique twist, a local artist made a crane out of used cartons, and its movements around the neighborhood garnered press coverage and requests to bring it on engagements for pictures.
White said that in Washington, D.C., creating effective messaging for multifamily housing involved work to discover who would help get out the message to area property managers and janitorial groups. Discovering the building and office manager association helped her team develop its implementation strategy.
White said during her experience in Washington, vetting resources was crucial for such a political city. For example, trade groups would test various terminology to avoid negative triggers.