This comic, currently on the Livermore Recycles website, reminds residents that reusable bags are the smart solution.
Environmental outreach professionals here in California are probably well aware of SB 1053. As of January 1, grocery stores and similar businesses may no longer offer plastic bags of any kind at check-out, and paper bags carry a minimum 10 cent fee.
“What!” we hear residents saying to themselves and others, “My rights are being invaded! Government overreach!” How dare we take away their microplastic polluting, enviro littering, fossil-fuel-based plastic convenience?
All kidding aside, as we know, Californians want solutions and they don’t like waste; for this law, at least, the solution – use reusables – is pretty simple and straightforward. Positioning this law positively can go a long way to helping everyone agree that it’s a good thing. When messaging about the change, outreach should steer clear of words like “ban”, “illegal”, “taken away”, etc. Try for a reassuring tone and looking on the bright side. Here’s what we included in a recent post on the Livermore Recycles website:
We don’t need plastic grocery bags and we don’t want to pay for paper so…we use reusables! By bringing your reusable bags to the store every time, you’ll cut down on plastic waste and save money in the bargain.
Let residents tell you (on social media) how they remember their reusable bags; norming this small change will help the more hesitant or resistant folks catch up and enjoy the benefits. By framing the law as a positive, we’ll help everyone (eventually!) comply and see the benefits.
Have you noticed some changes in your marketing metrics, such as a decline in organic web traffic, despite your ongoing efforts? This may be due to the rise of AI, and it’s going to affect how we do – and measure – environmental outreach going forward.
Web Traffic Is Going Down
You may not have seen a decline yet, but other sites have. News organizations, in particular, are seeing devastating drops in traffic as Internet users simply read Google Overview results rather than click through to a trusted source. Bain & Company research shows that “80% of consumers now rely on AI-written results for at least 40% of their searches, reducing organic web traffic by 15% to 25%.” (See AI-driven results in the image above, to see how AI answers a simple recycling question.)
As a skilled environmental outreach professional, you probably count on videos to raise awareness of desired behavior change, particularly among younger audiences. Well, YouTube video views are also declining, as the proliferation of AI-produced content is dominating people’s online time as part of “a sophisticated and growing AI slop content ecosystem that is flooding YouTube.”
Getting Answers from AI: Does It Matter?
Ok, AI-generated content may be taking eyeballs, so what? In addition to worrying about declining traffic to our websites and videos, there’s another concern – for users depending on AI for information about, say recycling. Is the information coming from AI even correct, or is it a made-up hallucination?
AI’s accuracy problem can lead to a lack of confidence in the “real thing” or to distrust in ALL resources that present themselves as specialists or expert
What Can We Do?
For now, we humans must hold high the flag of our creativity and go in swinging:
Test yourself and AI occasionally by passing a draft blog or social post by AI to see if it can come up with something better – see Gigantic colleague Myer’s blog on AI and creativity. In my experience, AI’s “marketing language” is overly generic, flat and clearly artificial. But in six months…who knows?
AI is here, and it does some amazing things. If we approach it with flexibility, critical thinking and caution, this tool can help outreach, probably in ways we can’t yet imagine.
Social media is a vital part of any environmental behavior change campaign these days, as it has been for years. But we are seeing massive changes: what used to work to reach people and get engagement simply doesn’t anymore. How people use and treat social is very different from ten or even five years ago. And this means our outreach strategy needs to change, too. Here are some quick tips:
How Many Words? Fuggedaboutit
Don’t worry any more about the optimal number of words in a post. The one word now is: VIDEO. Especially: short form, vertical video designed for Instagram, Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts. An average person spends about 100 minutes per day watching online videos. AND…they are often watched with sound off (85% of the time for Facebook users), so it’s important to make sure you can get the point across without audio. See vertical video examples at the end of this post from Watershed Watch and Livermore Recycles.
Cache the Hashtags
Those #hashtags used to be vital to get your posts found, but now they’re passé. Supposedly those clever AI algorithms are analyzing and organizing your content so efficiently that hashtags, which used to help “index” posts, particularly on Instagram and Twitter, are no longer needed, though some do still recommend their limited use.
YouTube is King
Despite all the noise around TikTok, according to Pew Research , nine in 10 teens use YouTube, as opposed to six in ten for TikTok and Instagram. Among adults, 85% of U.S. adults say they use YouTube. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use other social channels, but don’t forget the ‘Tube.
Organic Reach Is Just a Dream
Going viral may be a dream, but reaching even your own followers organically is a nightmare. Reach and engagement, never robust, have been steadily declining on Facebook and Instagram. It may be time to think about social media as an advertising channel, where you get what you pay for, if you’re lucky and diligent.
Just because things are changing, doesn’t mean we give up. Social media can and should still play an important part in your outreach to increase recycling, stop litter, fight waste, and more. Outreach specialists need to keep watch on the metrics and be open to experimentation and testing to continue to reach people on social media. Good luck!
Next time: we’ll delve deeper into AI and how it can help – and hinder – environmental outreach.
In environmental outreach work, reaching people when they are most open to effective feedback is always a challenge. Many waste agencies are using “oops tags” to indicate to residents that they have put the wrong items in the wrong carts, e.g. “OOPS – this item belongs in recycling” or “OOPS – only food scraps in the green cart, please!”
The Gigantic team has been working with clients on various kinds of OOPS tags for some years now. While we believe that customized, one-to-one outreach is effective, it is difficult to measure if the tags are responsible for positive impact.
We would love to experiment with taking the feedback one step further, by having haulers NOT pick up contaminated carts. This has been tried elsewhere, with positive results.
For now, we are continuing to refine and test various cart tags. Our latest effort: placing “OOPS” tags on Garbage carts, to draw attention to the large presence of food scraps and other items in the Garbage that should be recycled or composted.
Below are some examples of oops tags that Gigantic has created with various clients. We would love to discuss OOPS tags and the strategy behind them with you:
This tag, to be placed on Organics carts, is simple:
In 2023, we made a more elaborate tag that the outreach team could “customize”, depending on the contaminant. We understood from resident surveys that people were unsure or even skeptical about what happens to food scraps in the Organics cart. This tag also confirms that rich compost is made from the food scraps, and connects correct use of the organics cart with making healthy compost for farmers:
We are experimenting this year with placing an “oops” tag on the Garbage cart, calling out the items that should be in Recycling or Organics:
For Milpitas, we helped refine their tag design, which uses the same tag for all carts. Audit staff circle the appropriate cart, and provide very specific feedback on the types of items found (see image below). Milpitas staff have reported the tags are working work well, especially when they have the opportunity to speak directly with a resident, but that they need to add a few additional categories of contaminants.
While difficult to tie results directly to cart tagging, City staff noted that they are seeing some positive trends in households selected for a pilot project. The pilot area received food waste prevention outreach and then OOPS tags shortly thereafter. Follow-up audits over two years show some improvements. The fullness of the food scrap compartment increased from 8.8% full to 24% full. At the same time, contamination decreased by 42.5%.
There’s no one right way to use OOPS Tags, but they’re one of the most evidence-based ways to address contamination. They make a great addition to a cart-contamination reduction strategy.
Environmental specialists are working, like everyone else, in a polarized world where distrust of media and “truthiness” can make us question absolutely everything.
You’ve seen the headlines in everything from business press, public radio …
At Gigantic, we work with clients whose jurisdictions:
Don’t accept “compostable” plastic
Do accept “compostable” plastic
Only accept Plastics # 1, 2, 5
Only accept “rigid” plastics
Ask you to put plastic bags in the Garbage
Ask you to put plastic bags in the Recycling
Accept paper cups in Recycling
Accept paper cups in the Garbage
Put pizza boxes in the Recycling
Put pizza boxes in the Organics
And on and on…
Source: Story of Stuff Instagram
Is it any wonder that residents are wondering what’s going on?
If we had a magic wand, we’d wave it and make all this a lot simpler: focus on just a few of the most easily identified recyclable materials so that “waste” streams are clean and easily processed. We’d like to see:
All jurisdictions’ carts be the same color and labels as in other jurisdictions.
Every jurisdiction have the same “what goes where” instructions and
VASTLY simplify “what goes where” messaging to focus on the most recyclable items, in order to cut down on contamination. We have seen over and over that “wishcycling” is a real thing, and a real hassle for materials facilities.
But we don’t live in a perfect world. For now, environmental communicators need to be honest about the challenges of recycling, while reassuring the public that many problems can be solved and not to give up hope.
Reducing food waste and diverting it and other organic materials from landfill is key to reducing methane emissions in our state (and around the world). California’s SB 1383 establishes targets for reducing organic waste going to landfill and increasing edible food recovery, and public agencies across the state are scrambling to implement it. The law, including outreach for it, was a major focus at this year’s California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) Conference. The Gigantic team’s presentation was designed to contribute to that discussion.
How much do Californians already know about food waste and its connection to climate change? What would motivate more residents to reduce food waste? Back in 2020, we conducted a brief statewide survey of Californians to ask a few questions about their understanding of greenhouse gas emissions, landfill and food waste. We re-ran the survey with some additional questions in 2023 to see if the implementation of SB 1383 was impacting residents’ understanding of food waste and its relation to the warming planet. In comparing the data from 2023 to that of 2020 we noted:
84% of respondents think that human-caused climate change is happening; this is up
4 percentage points from 2020.
The number of respondents who are very or extremely worried about climate change is stable at 50%. There is an increase of those who say they are more worried than they were a year ago: 46% vs 40% in 2020.
Only 33% of respondents understood that food scraps break down and release methane in landfill. This is down from 42% in 2020.
Despite the requirements of SB 1383 that every resident have access to organics composting service, only 47% of respondents confirmed that their food scraps are collected separately from garbage. 28% said that food scraps go in the garbage and 16% said they don’t have food scrap collection service. 8% did not know.
When asked to select the three best reasons for reducing food waste, “The right thing to do” was selected by 45% of respondents (down from 49% in 2020). “Fighting climate change” was selected by 32% of respondents.
The survey results demonstrate that many Californians understand that climate change is happening and they are worried about it, but do not yet understand the connection between food waste going to landfill and the climate crisis. We see this as a possible opportunity for future outreach: Many of the actions that fight climate change are quite a big “ask” for most people: “Buy a new electric car!” “Replace your water heater!” “Stop eating meat!” In contrast, cutting food waste is both simpler and has many practical benefits, such as saving money. Could outreach about cutting food waste to fight climate change be the daily action that makes people feel positive and hopeful about their actions and the future? This is a question we’d like to explore in future research.
To receive a copy of the full survey report, please email Gigantic.
For our government and non-profit partners in environmental behavior change, the good news is: we’re all in this together. When our messaging about recycling, waste reduction, energy conservation and respect for nature spreads far and wide, we all win! So it’s smart to help each other reach as many people as possible.
That’s where the partner power comes in by creating a network of like-minded organizations and a process for sharing partner messages across groups and platforms. It’s a very simple idea: compile your sharable messages into a few easily “cut and pasted” formats, such as newsletter article, Facebook or Instagram, then send the memo to a curated list of partner organizations that pick up and share the content on their channels.
It’s a Win-Win
Not only does the partner memo amplify the original sender’s message, it provides content for those of us struggling to come up with new things to say in our e-news, website or social media.
Get started!
Make a list of the top organizations that share your values and communication topics. Some might be direct “competitors” such as a non-profit with a similar focus, or local governments, more general community organizations (that would be interested in helping their constituents, such as the public library. Reach out to these organizations and explain that you’d like to share content with them and invite them to share theirs with you. Set up your memo template and start sharing!
Top Tips for Effective Partner Memos
Send regularly, but not TOO often
Send your partner memos on a regular schedule if possible, say once a quarter. For time-sensitive messages, be sure to allow plenty of notice so that your content can be included at the right time for the recipient. In other words, don’t send your Christmas post to partners on December 23rd!
Make it easy!
The easier you make it, the more likely your content is to be shared. Include suggested headlines, pertinent links and, ALWAYS, images. Link to downloadable images that are properly sized for each channel. Be sure to specify if a photo credit as needed.
Reciprocate!
Share and share alike, right? Be open to sharing other organizations’ content in your channels. Showing the world that you are a good partner concerned about your community is an excellent strategy – and it’s the right thing to do.
Sometimes the simplest tools can be the most effective. A little effort to set up the partner memo system will pay off for months to come as your partner power and messaging takes flight.
This image – generated at Fotor.com – supposedly illustrates the use of AI for environmental behavior change campaigns…!
Everywhere we look these days, we see both excitement and warnings around the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. How will the use of artificial intelligence impact our outreach? Will it make it easy to select the best way to communicate about environmental behavior change? Will it put environmental behavior change agencies out of business? ARGH.
While we don’t think we’ll be out of a job any time soon, we all know that change is the only certainty and that we will all need to adapt to this new ‘entity’. Let’s look at the current state of AI with a couple of examples from Google’s Bard chatbot:
I asked Bard:
“Write a Facebook post that will incorporate food waste messaging and Livermore’s Binny.”
Bard responded:
Sure, here is a Facebook post that incorporates food waste messaging and Livermore’s Binny:
Headline: Livermore’s Binny is Helping to Fight Food Waste
Body:
Did you know that one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted every year? That’s enough food to feed 2 billion people!
Food waste is a major environmental problem. It contributes to climate change, water pollution, and deforestation. It also wastes resources that could be used to feed people.
Livermore’s Binny is helping to fight food waste. They donate food to local food banks and soup kitchens. They also compost food scraps, which helps to reduce methane emissions.
If you’re looking for ways to reduce food waste, there are a few things you can do:
Plan your meals ahead of time so you don’t buy more food than you need.
Cook only what you need and save leftovers for later.
Donate food to local food banks or soup kitchens.
Compost food scraps.
By taking these steps, you can help to reduce food waste and make a difference in the world.
Call to action:
To learn more about how you can help fight food waste, visit Binny’s website or follow them on social media.
While the information is not totally incorrect, it seems as if Bard could not distinguish a Facebook post from a 185-word blog post. Despite having instant access to the entire Internet, Bard did not know that Binny is a mascot for Livermore Recycles, representing the Organics Cart; Binny himself does not “donate food to local food banks and soup kitchens.” While this post draft gives some ideas, it certainly requires human intervention.
I tried to push the AI to make decisions about which content to include in a short format, asking:
“Please write a tweet with the most important action an individual can take to combat the climate crisis.”
Bard’s response was very big-picture – for whatever reason, it did not focus on recycling or reducing individual carbon footprint, but on political action:
The most important action an individual can take to combat the climate crisis is to vote for climate-friendly candidates. Vote in every election, from local to national, and let your elected officials know that climate action is a top priority for you. #ClimateAction
So far, these responses are reasonable but not earth-shattering. Can AI provide the spark that really grabs attention? I tried to elicit some more creativity from Bard, asking:
“Please write a limerick about sorting waste at home.”
Bard responded with:
There was a young lady named Sue Who sorted her waste into two. She said, “I’m a bit green, But I’m doing my scene By recycling and composting too!”
Well, Bard, I think “doing my scene” is a bit weak, but this has a spark of life in it.
Finally, selfishly, I asked Bard, “When will AI replace the need for environmental outreach professionals?”
Part of Bard’s reply was appealing:
Here are some ways that AI can be used to support environmental outreach professionals:
Create engaging and informative content:AI can be used to generate content that is tailored to the needs of different audiences. For example, AI can be used to create infographics, videos, and articles that are both informative and engaging.
Track the effectiveness of outreach efforts:AI can be used to track the effectiveness of outreach efforts by measuring things like website traffic, social media engagement, and donations. This data can be used to improve future outreach efforts.
Connect with people who might not otherwise be reached:AI can be used to connect with people who might not otherwise be reached by environmental outreach efforts. For example, AI can be used to create chatbots that can answer questions about environmental issues or to create personalized email campaigns.
Some interesting promises here that we will explore further. But, we also like Bard’s conclusion:
Overall, AI is a powerful tool that can be used to support environmental outreach professionals. However, it is important to remember that AI cannot replace the human touch. Environmental outreach professionals are still essential for building relationships with people and communities, and for creating lasting change.
Amen!
P.S. Bard does not yet create images, but I asked Fotor.com to “Create an image for a blog post about the use of AI for environmental behavior change campaigns.” The result (see above) is, well, interesting!
Survey questions asked about current consumption attitudes and habits.
We love working on all kinds of waste and sustainability issues with our clients, and we especially enjoy the challenge of moving people toward a more zero waste lifestyle. Our most recent presentation for the CRRA Conference (see slideshow below) looked at the challenge of “selling folks” on the behavior of buying less stuff. “Selling Nothing” introduced some ways of encouraging less consumption, such as by focusing on specific items, or reminding people of the positive feeling that comes from sharing or helping others, or by focusing on specific behaviors, for instance holiday gift-giving, to encourage buying less stuff.
We then presented results of a brief survey of Californians about their feelings around any recent changes in their consumption habits. Many of the questions were borrowed – well, reused — from a 2015 survey done in New Zealand about the connection between buying and people’s feeling of well-being.
A few findings from our July 2021 survey, which gathered 350 responses from Californians:
A majority of respondents (53%) confirm they are consciously reducing the amount of stuff they have bought in the last 3 months.
Unsurprisingly in this time of economic uncertainty and pandemic effects, over half of those who bought less did so because they had less money to spend or wanted to save more. These answers could give us some ideas about how to position non-consumption.
More than two-thirds of respondents agreed with statements about over-consumption’s negative impact on “future generations” and “the planet.” So seemingly awareness is not the issue in cutting consumption, it’s more a question of persuasion.
The final question of the survey was “Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?” — asked at the end so as not to prejudice responses to the other questions. 43% said yes, 34% said no, and 18% weren’t sure if they considered themselves environmentalists. The comments revealed some tensions: some considered being “green” too hard or that environmentalists are too radical, while a few were outright hostile to the label.
Key takeaways include:
“Selling” not buying in general is a tough challenge; try focusing on specific actions, items or situations in order to chip away at the social pressure to consume.
While we encourage source reduction to tackle the issues of waste and climate change, there are many reasons people may reduce consumption that could be included in a source reduction campaign. A primary driver is saving money.
A majority of respondents understand that rampant consumption is harmful to people and planet in the long run. BUT…
A majority also acknowledge that buying stuff makes them happy. So that clarifies the challenge for outreach campaigns that aim to reduce consumption – how can we offer a form of happiness to replace the happiness of buying?
“When in doubt, take it out” is a rule I apply as often as possible when editing my own writing and that of others. By removing words or seeking simpler vocabulary or constructions, writing often becomes more clear, comprehensible and even beautiful.
The suitably simple cover design for Klotz’s Subtract.
A new book by Leidy Klotz, professor at the University of Virginia, takes the idea of ‘taking away’ to a whole new level. Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less posits that humans are programmed to solve problems by adding stuff – elements, ideas or things – whereas subtracting them often clarifies and eases a problem. One of the book’s first examples is the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco. The project was opposed by a majority of citizens and politicians on a number of operational and economic grounds. Yet once the freeway, damaged in the Loma Prieta quake, was removed, the benefits became obvious – and huge. Klotz notes “The decade after removal saw a 50 percent increase in housing and a 15 percent increase in jobs around the waterfront. (p. 3) A beautiful space was created, businesses thrived, people flocked and … traffic became less snarled.
Are there environmental problems that can be addressed by removing rather than adding? Klotz addresses this possibility and gives some examples. He suggests applying subtraction to the 3Rs: “When the current situation exceeds planetary boundaries, we need to subtract first. Remove must become the first R.” (p.210)
Klotz’s research is introduced in the video below. While subtraction is not the answer to every problem, it’s another tool we can use when approaching environmental outreach…and everyday life.
Have you noticed some changes in your marketing metrics, such as a decline in organic web traffic, despite your ongoing efforts? This may be due to the rise of AI, and it’s going to affect how we do – and measure – environmental outreach going forward.
