Since 2014 the Gigantic team has been conducting twice-yearly “lid flips” – noting the contents of residents’ cart set-outs to measure behavior change and to gauge the effectiveness of outreach – for the City of Livermore. It’s a dirty business, but a great learning experience. The results have informed campaign messaging, collateral and social posts, with a focus on the food scrap collection program. Since we started, observed participation in Organics has increased by 50% (from 31% of all households in 2014 to 46% in spring 2025) but there’s still a way to go.
Switching OOPS! Tags
The team has worked with the Livermore Recycles staff to think creatively about how to evolve our approach to include feedback and direct outreach. For several years we attached OOPS tags to the Organics cart, calling out contaminants. For the last two rounds of lid flips we switched to putting friendly reminder on Garbage carts, to draw attention to the large presence of food scraps and other compostable items in the Garbage and to encourage residents to put them in the Organics cart instead.
Reassuring Residents
In the spring of 2025, the outreach team noticed that more residents were approaching them with questions and comments, so for the fall flips we created a flyer to reassure people that this was not about punishing anyone and to explain why Livermore Recycles does the lid flips and how the results will be used. The handout also listed resources and contact information and was well received.
Tech Tools to the Rescue
We also adapted to new technology! Last year we ditched our handwritten logs for a tablet and started using Zabble, an AI-aided digital platform, to record the findings. Besides sparing us a lot of tedious data entry, the platform makes the calculation of key metrics easier and organizes the photos of the inspected carts into a searchable image library. This has helped us zero in on residents’ sorting behavior and even provided “showcase” images for Livermore Recycles.
While not full waste audits, lid flips are a useful tool that allow waste agencies to assess outreach progress and to refine messaging based on data. As always, tactics like lid flips and oops tags should be monitored and regularly assessed, with a goal of continuous improvement.