One of the most important elements of waste management is education. It’s essential for reducing contamination in the recycling stream as the community is the key stakeholder to recycling after all! In part 2 we’re going to look at how to create a successful campaign that educates the community in reducing recycling contamination.
Recycling education is the most important step to reducing contamination. When paired with cart audits we discussed in part 1, residents receive relevant recycling behavior feedback and education on acceptable recycling practices. This is because the data captured from cart audits can be used to inform residents of their recycling behavior and lead to sustained recycling behavior change. By pairing these two activities, both audits and custom education, municipalities have the greatest chance to reduce contamination to acceptable levels.
We’ve already explained the first three steps toward an effective recycling program. First, make sure the program itself is effective, monitor this by performing cart audits, and reject contaminated carts to ensure efficiency. Now, it’s time to put together an educational program that works towards achieving beneficial recycling behaviors in the community.
First, let’s take a look at the various strategies that have been used in the past for recycling outreach so we can build the most effective recycling education campaign.
Media Campaigns
Media campaigns can be anything from television news features, news articles, or social media campaigns. These strategies are great for reaching a wide audience within the general area of a municipality, but fail to target the correct audience. When general media campaigns are launched they cannot identify households that participate in a municipal recycling program nor can they identify the households that are recycling incorrectly. So while you’re reaching a wide range of residents, since you can only tackle this with a generalized approach, the impact is pretty small in enabling sustained behavior change.
Mail Card Campaigns
Multiple municipalities across North America have delivered generic mail cards to households participating in the recycling program. This is a step in the right direction, only those participating in the municipal recycling program receive the outreach. However, this form of recycling education fails to provide relevant information for each participating household. The postcards contain general information related to accepted and unaccepted materials, collection schedules, and general observations found from MRF operators. Rarely is this information any different from what can be found on the municipal recycling website. So while you’re hitting a niche audience, it’s still a pretty generalized approach so you’re not making a big impact. Participating households might read the information, but it doesn’t guarantee a change in recycling behavior.
Online Portals
Let’s face it, contamination is a big problem for municipalities and it’s not possible to display all essential information on one website. Online portals are a great way to encourage environmental education. Providers such as Recycle Coach link a database of accepted and unaccepted materials for residents who aren’t sure where to go with their recycling. Recycle Coach also provides municipal-specific recycling guidelines as these are often unique to the municipality.
While Recycle Coach makes information more accessible, it doesn’t provide outreach or work to achieve sustained recycling behavior. The system relies on self-research from residents which isn’t always so easy to achieve! The impact of this has few long-term effects.
With all these recycling outreach strategies, recycling behavior change is rarely achieved and programs are stuck with similar rates of contamination.
Cart Audits and Custom Education
Cart audits are the best way to provide targeted, custom education for each household. Performing cart audits and issuing customized education over a specified period is the best way to curb contamination. This method adopts a continuous feedback loop to provide residents with the needed support to make sustained recycling behavior change.
This process leads to continuous improvement, sustained recycling behavior, and has the greatest chance to reduce contamination in a municipality.
Providing recycling education that is easily accessible for residents in the form of mail cards is great. Content is relevant and delivered right to the resident, removing the burden of searching for information. To ensure continuous feedback, the outreach to residents should be consistent. Furthermore, providing outreach in different languages, and even better, with pictures taken from cart audits will help residents understand the recycling program.
Mail outreach should always have a positive approach. Congratulate residents on their recycling success! Then give constructive feedback on how they can be even better next time. The more colorful the better. Using images of the exact materials recycled can build accountability for household recycling behavior and can help residents recognize acceptable and unacceptable items in their carts.
In addition to mail cards, targeted digital engagement and advertising is a positive way to provide custom education when paired with cart audits. Geofence technology allows social media campaigns to be subjected to a specific radius within a community. Nearly everyone has some form of social media, take advantage of this opportunity by delivering custom, geofenced education to each resident in a specific area.
When collecting data from cart audits there are many ways it can be divided. By dividing into more specific niches, common contaminants can be identified. Following this, custom education campaigns can be built to address the most common contaminants within a geographical location. By encouraging specific households to recycle correctly, municipalities can address the leading contamination issues in the community.
