The Gigantic Team’s Top Takeaways from CRRA 2025

The Gigantic Team

As we have every year for decades (!), members of the Gigantic team attended CRRA 2025, the premier conference for zero waste and resource recovery professionals in California. Each GIS attendee had different highlights and takeaways, but as usual, we brought home information and inspiration to help our work.

Kas enjoyed seeing colleagues and making new connections:

One big highlight was getting to spend quality time with our team! It was inspiring to see Myer at his first multi day conference event; Nancy who always asks the most potent questions; and Lisa reflect on changes over the decades she has been involved with CRRA.

It was wonderful to see former Gigantic staffer Freddy Coronado excel at his role as President of NCRA (Northern California Recycling Alliance). And of course, we can’t forget the amazing Abbe sisters’ lyrics and performances at NCRA Players…talk about talent!

Beyond the vibe (which we can all agree was awesome), it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about AB1383, AB54, new challenges of HHW and a chance to lean into the Behavior Change Technical Council. I am always inspired by presentations on reuse and circular economies — especially the presentation by business incubator Beam.

Stef attended remotely this year; while she missed the networking IRL, she still took away many meaningful tidbits:

Besides deep dives on waste characterization studies, lid flipping and SB54, I found some interesting connections between waste/recycling and energy. The fact that nitrogen production for fertilizer is the eleventh largest energy user—as shared by keynote panelist Cara Rose Ostrander—should give compost another selling point as an alternative to synthetic fertilizer.

The session about zero emission hauler fleets gave me hope that, although requirements for the private sector have been reversed, several haulers that have already started investing in EV trucks are unlikely to reverse course because they have seen dramatic benefits related to safety, noise and air pollution. One hauler’s biggest concern surprised me: it wasn’t EV trucks’ price tags (almost double the cost of conventional trucks) but the rise of energy-hungry AI data centers whose competition for electricity could drive up costs to keep EV fleets running.

Nancy relished the sessions but couldn’t stop worrying:

Spending three plus days in a beautiful, LEED certified hotel, surrounded by over 800 professionals working with heart and discipline to help people and the environment, was stimulating and also comforting. But I felt the constant intrusion of current events and upcoming challenges that will make all our work even harder. Climate change, the current political and social situation that is making recycling and waste reduction more challenging than it needs to be, and the coming threat of AI from social (job losses/shifts) and environmental (massive resource consumption) perspectives too often distracted me and I couldn’t help wondering, am I the only one obsessing like this or are others just putting on a brave front?

Myer was reminded of a primary role of environmental (and really any) communication:

Throughout CRRA I repeatedly heard the phrase, “meeting people where they are,” which truly resonated with me. I saw a great example of this during a session on the Santa Cruz County Green Schools Program. Instead of focusing on a single issue like litter and assuming it was the biggest problem, the program found more success by first surveying students to learn which environmental topics they were genuinely interested in. By addressing the students’ actual concerns, they achieved much higher engagement. They also found success when environmental education was integrated into the curriculum, not just “another thing” to add to it. This approach “turns learning into action,” empowering students with practical experience and according to Amity Sandage, the environmental literacy coordinator for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, helps to “prepare students to be decision-makers”.  Programs like these aimed at young students are a powerful tool for helping them develop sustainable habits that will hopefully last a lifetime.

Lisa was inspired by the connection between what we heard and our day-to-day work:

CRRA always helps me remember that our work matters! It’s too easy to get lost in the daily grind  of details and deadlines, forgetting the big picture in the process. The keynote speakers reminded me of our ultimate purpose: to help steward the land. Tom Little Bear Nason, Tribal Chairman of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County, reminded us that Earth is out of balance, but that Earth, Air, Fire and Water unite all of us, regardless of our skin color, where we live, or which god we worship. His words, along with those of Tim Krantz of the Wildlands Conservancy and Calla Rose Ostrander of the People, Food and Land Foundation, inspired me to reframe our work as ultimately that of restoration: We promote food scrap recycling to create compost to feed the soil; our watershed work helps keep pesticides out and heals the water; and much of our work reduces greenhouse gases and pollution to protect the air and all who breathe it.

After CRRA we get back to work with renewed purpose and look forward to the challenges of the next 12 months … before the next conference!

 

Keep Plastic Out of the Green Bin! A new anti-contamination campaign to improve compost quality

Lisa Duba

This past year, we accepted the challenge to help San Mateo County develop a countywide social marketing campaign designed to improve compost quality by addressing contamination of food scraps and yard trimmings collected in the county.

The Project

Farmer: we need you help making healthy compostGigantic Idea Studio developed a scope of work that included as much of the community-based social marketing (CBSM) process as time and budget would allow:

  • Secondary research review of data from haulers, public agency RethinkWaste, transfer stations and composting facilities and similar campaigns,
  • Primary research via focus groups, with message development and testing and finally,
  • Campaign creative and a pilot study toolkit, with an implementation guide.

Partnering for Success

Gigantic partnered with R3 Consulting Group to analyze data and identify the top contaminants and sources of contamination. Unsurprisingly, plastics, especially film plastics, were most common. Multi-family dwellings (MFDs) and commercial businesses were the top sources. To keep within the time and budget, we chose plastic as the target contaminant, and MFDs as the target audience.

We also partnered with Green Motivate to look at messaging of similar campaigns conducted in Vermont; Boulder, Colorado; Oregon and Snohomish County, Washington. Each had compelling messages and images— some of which inspired our campaign.

Contaminated green bin means contaminated compostPartnering with Engel Research Partners, we conducted focus groups in English, Spanish and Cantonese to test selected messages and learn more about the barriers and benefits related to food scrap and yard trimming collection programs.

Top Takeaways

  • Most people were unclear about what happens to the contents of their green bins after they are collected.
  • Once they understood that compost was used in gardens, parks and farms, residents seemed more motivated to learn how to prevent contamination.
  • Motivating messages included links to local agriculture, farmers/farmworkers and health.
  • But people also wanted clear, easy to understand instructions on how to compost correctly— not just inspiration and fluff.
  • Bin is the preferred term (vs. carts) to refer to wheeled carts and larger rolloff bins.

From these learnings we created a messaging strategy to inform a storytelling video, article and social media posts that included:

  • Awareness messaging: “Contaminated Green Bin=Contaminate Compost”
  • Motivational messaging: “We need your help making healthy compost for San Mateo County gardens, parks and farms,” and
  • Food in, plastic out - green cartInstructional messaging: “Keep All Plastic Out of the Green Bin” and “Food In/Plastic Out”.

For on-the-ground interventions, the campaign toolkit also included bin area signage, a downloadable kitchen sign, and a pilot study methodology.  To reach the top monolingual, non-English speaking communities, we partnered with InterEthnica to adapt all campaign collateral into Spanish and Chinese.

While the CBSM components will be implemented locally by stakeholders, the County will be doing a media campaign to support on-the-ground efforts, running sometime this fall.

Lizzie Carrade of the San Mateo County Sustainability Department presented the campaign at the California Resource Recovery Association Annual Conference this year. We are proud to have been part of the team trying to address this pervasive problem.

 

Do Californians Get the Connection of Food Waste and Climate Change?

Nancy Roberts

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.

Is AI A-OK? Exploring Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Outreach

Nancy Roberts
fotor generated image of tree, cloud, water and person
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!

#  #  #

 

The Role of Art in Making Change

Stefanie Pruegel

Angela Davis at Oakland Museum graphicBig, complex environmental issues like climate change can easily overwhelm and lead to resignation and denial, instead of creative problem solving. While facts and how-to information have their place in environmental behavior change campaigns, so do art and fostering imagination beyond rational understanding. The Oakland Museum of California currently has an excellent exhibition about African American educator and activist Angela Davis, whose fight against mass incarceration and racism in the 60’s and 70’s made her an icon of Black liberation around the world. The show draws on a huge archive of newspaper clippings, posters, pamphlets, buttons and pop culture objects to tell Davis’s story in the political and cultural context of the time. What makes many of the visuals so powerful is how the call for social change and art are intertwined. Most striking are the political posters with bold, screen-printed images and collages.

In a recorded interview, looping on a large screen as part of the exhibit, Davis comments on the crucial role art plays in social change movements. She notes, “Art can produce knowledge that doesn’t occur with a simple political speech.” Such knowledge doesn’t arise from taking in facts alone and involves much more than the rational part of our brain. As with storytelling, art activates all parts of the human brain, enabling the level of empathy and engagement that can indeed motivate the change we need to see. This is especially important when there is urgency to act but the path forward isn’t clear. As Davis says, “Art enriches our ideas about change. It allows us to grasp what we cannot yet understand and enables us to imagine different modes of being.”

Vivid visual communication is a staple of effective behavior change campaigns.The upcoming Earth Month offers an opportunity to make art a campaign focus. How do you use the power of art in your outreach?

Which Message is Best? Results from a Pilot Cart Tagging Project in Sunnyvale, California

Lisa Duba

Gigantic Idea Studio teamed up with Sunnyvale, California with the challenge to refresh their “FoodCycle” food scrap collection program outreach and improve participation rates. The question was, how?

social norming message tag
One tag version had messages of social norming and the benefits of foodcycling.

After surveying residents, we found that self-reported participation was actually fairly high at 63%, but cart audits showed a lower citywide participation rate of 57% and weekly participation of 45%.

The City wanted more program collateral, how-to videos and a presentation to help them communicate about the program, but also wanted to explore behavior-change tactics in a pilot program. Our team proposed a communications campaign as a baseline strategy, that would be supplemented with cart tagging in two pilot areas. The pilot would determine whether or not cart tagging improved participation more than advertisements, articles and videos. Together, we set a goal to raise weekly participation by 5%.

The two pilot areas were given two different messaging strategies: Social Norming and Benefit messaging vs. Addressing Barriers messaging. The social norming tag showed residents and their quotes about why they FoodCycled—and then listed the benefits of participation, such as reducing waste and fighting climate change. It also clearly stated that 63% of residents participate, a clear majority of support and enthusiasm. The second group received messaging related to overcoming barriers to participation, such as tips to avoid mess, smells and pests, and alternative collection containers for smaller kitchens or those concerned with aesthetics.

The more effective tag addressed barriers to food scrap recycling.

Although both strategies are part of the popular “Community-Based Social Marketing” practices, the cart audits showed that the “Barriers” messaging worked better in Sunnyvale. The households that received a cart tag with tips saw an increase of 9% (from 44% to 53%) in weekly participation and 7% in overall participation, when compared to the baseline.

Both types of messages were included in the communications campaign, but the pilot project shows that cart tagging adds effectiveness that can be measured. This is likely related to the personal and contextual message delivery method—the cart—which is related to the behavior change we are asking for.

Many cities will be conducting cart audits as part of SB 1383’s statewide requirements. Adding friendly, yet effective messaging designed to increase participation in organics programs is a good way to maximize the investment of labor required to do these audits. This messaging can be combined with contamination feedback and included on the back side of any cart tag.

We have experience designing these tags and providing guidance on how to determine messaging that resonates in your community. We’d love to hear from you!

Hard Numbers, Hard Truths: How Data from Spot Checks, Surveys and More Guide Outreach

The Gigantic Team

We know it’s best to base outreach on data that we get from research. Formal research can be costly, but actionable data is all around us – and it can help make public outreach more effective.

For the 2022 California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) Conference, Gigantic participated in a session about the use of surveys and spot checks to guide outreach. Our presentation gave examples from two of Gigantic’s clients: Cities of Milpitas and Livermore.

Among the suggestions:

  • Integrating some research into your outreach plan is better than none. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good: include lid flips and surveys into your budgets as feasible. There’s also data that does not need a specific budget because:
  • Outreach data is all around us. Your agency may not be able to afford a statistically rigorous survey, but quantitative data from hauler reports or lid flipping can be useful guides to what is working and what challenges arise. Qualitative data (individual questions or reactions that represent the concerns of a larger audience) can be gathered from phone help lines, comments at public meetings or from social media posts. Website statistics show us which content is or is not being accessed, what users are searching for and how/when they accessed the site; this is all guiding data for outreach.
  • Use data to react in real time. Are you getting a lot of questions on your social channel about plastic bags? Are lid flips showing an increase in a particular item of contamination? Respond to these questions with blog or social posts, or additional newsletter content, as promptly as possible.

See the full presentation here:

Learn more about CRRA here.

HHWhat? Outreach Challenges of Household Hazardous Waste

The Gigantic Team

Household Hazardous Waste: what a term! It’s a mouthful: three words that don’t really clarify what it encompasses. Add to that, city, hauler and marketing professionals like to shorten the term to HHW – which sounds even more mysterious. The EPA defines Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) as “leftover household products that can catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances, or that are corrosive or toxic.” Common HHW items include fluorescent bulbs, batteries, gasoline, household chemicals, pesticides, paints, antifreeze and asbestos…a real hodgpodge of toxic stuff.

At Gigantic, when tackling an HHW project, we start out thinking about our audience’s awareness of the problem. The problem with HHW is that it encompasses things as seemingly harmless as half-empty hair spray to those more easily perceived as dangerous, such as pesticides. When describing the hazards, we like the wording “toxic to you and/or the environment” to encompass all the potential negative outcomes.

Understanding HHW: Does It Matter?

When doing outreach, it’s important to describe the issue or item in question before you tell people what to do about it and give them a reason to dispose carefully. However, when considering HHW, we wonder, “do people really need to know the term?” Not necessarily. Communicating how HHW items should be handled can work either way:

  1. Explain the term and help people understand which items are considered HHW, then let them know how to safely dispose of it.
  2. Encourage use of a general “what goes where” app like StopWaste’s re:source tool that includes HHW items, without requiring the user to identify them as such. (IMAGE w link https://resource.stopwaste.org

image of search in re:source

Connect HHW Items with Real World Examples

It can also be helpful to put HHW disposal in context. When might residents be most likely to think about getting rid of HHW? Maybe before putting their house up for sale, when contemplating a spring cleaning or when tackling DIY house projects? Messaging that connects an activity with HHW items is more likely to be memorable.

Go Beyond the Carts

It could help if HHW items were called out more prominently in recycling guides as a category that needs different treatment, such as a “Not Accepted Curbside” or “Special Items”  category.

Go for Impact

It also makes sense to focus on the HHW items that are most problematic in your area. Rather than implying the need to grasp a long list of items, focus on raising awareness about one item at a time, choosing those that would be most impactful if they were disposed of properly.

Thinking through the challenges and solutions of communicating about HHW before starting campaign design will save time and effort, while keeping people and nature safer.

SB 1383: Composting Outreach to Multi-Family Residents

Lisa Duba
Man emptying compost pail into correct cart
A new campaign encourages organic material composting for multi-family residents.

SB 1383 requires everyone in California — residents and businesses — to separate and compost organic materials, such as plant trimmings, leaves, grass and food scraps. In much of the Bay Area, yard trimmings and food scrap collection has been offered to single-family households for years. But the new law is providing a much-needed push to roll out food scrap collection service to multi-unit buildings. These buildings, which can have a few as four and up to hundreds of individual units, provide challenges, but also opportunities to keep more organic material out of the landfill.

Food scrap collection is an entirely new concept to the vast majority of apartment, condo and and townhome residents, and a clear and effective outreach program is a must-have. Outreach is ideally implemented at each building site. A successful program requires a good partnership between the service provider, the city or waste agency, and the property manager.

Gigantic is proud to have been part of a great collaboration with the South Bayside Waste Management Authority and their service provider, Recology, to create a composting campaign for apartment and condo residents.

Our team helped focus the campaign for the end-user of the program: the resident. The campaign will support the work of Recology’s implementation team and include a doorhanger for individual units and a poster for lobbies, trash areas and mail rooms. Both highlight the new food scrap composting requirement and link via QR code to a step-by-step instructional video. To support this site-specific outreach, we’ll be promoting the video on social media via paid promotion.

The video works to show, not tell, and visually communicates the food scrap recycling process. The addition of select graphic captions help identify key steps in the process. Voice-over in three languages (English, Spanish and Cantonese) help reach residents who may otherwise miss the message, while providing more detailed information.

Our video also includes 1383-required messaging about the law and its goal to reduce greenhouse gases.

We enjoyed working with this highly motivated client team. The program rolled out in June and we look forward to seeing the results!

Gigantic Growth! Welcome to our new Associates!

The Gigantic Team

Our team has gotten even more Gigantic! We are pleased to announce the addition of Myer Venzon and Dennis Uyat to our team of Associates.

Myer is a marketing professional with skills and experience in strategy, digital and social media, communications, branding and creative. At Gigantic, Myer contributes to a variety of aspects of our campaigns, with a particular focus on digital strategy. Previously, Myer worked in the green beauty industry, where he was able to grow his passion for marketing with ethical and sustainable products. He is environmentally conscious and does his part by recycling old jokes passed down from his dad.

Myer holds a B.S. in Marketing Management and an M.B.A. in Global Innovation from California State University, East Bay. 

 

Dennis has worked with us on a per project basis since 2019. Dennis is a passionate environmental communicator with a lot of hands-on experience in engaging community members in sustainable behaviors with a focus on zero waste. As a field rep, Dennis has helped set up recycling and composting systems, working with residents and businesses throughout the Bay Area. They have led multilingual recycling facility tours to international delegations, elementary school students and community groups. Dennis has also been a leader with Zero Waste Youth.

dennis head shotDennis holds a B.A. in Geography with a minor in Geospatial Information Science Technology from UC Berkeley and an A.A. in Recycling and Resource Management from Golden West College in Huntington Beach. They hold a certificates in Master Resource & Conservation and Master Compost & Solid Waste from the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability, and Zero Waste Community Associate by Zero Waste USA.

We are excited for our clients to work with both Myer and Dennis in the near future!