‘Tis the Season…for Zero Waste Messaging!

Kas Neteler

It’s that time of year – holiday parties, bountiful buffets, frantic shopping, dining out and ordering tons of stuff online. This rush of activity produces a seemingly unending amount of waste.

At Gigantic, we and our waste professional clients cringe with every stack of delivered boxes, every pile of discarded edible food and every stack of red solo cups in the bulging trash bag after a big party.

If only we could normalize zero waste behaviors at a time when excess is being celebrated and encouraged at every turn! Don’t give up! The holidays provide prime opportunities for reducing waste, often by not creating it in the first place. Now’s the time to pump up our zero waste messaging and help people think about ways to reduce waste during this stressful season.

Like this popular blog, we can normalize behaviors that make less-waste sense:

Normalize: Secondhand gifts handmade gifts consumable gifts experience gifts small business gifts

We can bring concepts forward to interrupt gluttonous behaviors and capture the attention of people who are emotionally on the fence about participating in excess. We can help with tips, encouragement and resources, with feel-good messaging that promotes a more calm, conscious and guilt-free low-waste lifestyle.  

Who will benefit from these messages? Of the folks with whom you communicate, there are:

  • People who are already doing the “right” thing…this messaging will help to reinforce and confirm that they are doing the right thing.
  • People who feel uneasy and wish they knew how to do some things better. This group responds well to tips and encouragement to jump in and just try something different.
  • People who are not willing to change and connect the holidays with joyous excess. Low-waste messaging may not influence them this time around, but the seeds may be planted for future change as they see others adopting lower-waste ways.

We highly recommend using your social media channels, newsletters, editorials, advertising and other outlets to promote messaging around  waste reduction during the holidays.

You will not be alone! Here are some great recent examples – including a few of ours – to inspire your messaging:

From Zero Waste Marin:

Promotion of Gift of Great Memories

Happy Zero Waste Holidays! Shop Smart Compost Scraps Love Leftovers

From StopFoodWaste:

stop food waste holiday tips email

From the City of Livermore/Livermore Recycles:

Bnny thanksgiving dinner - Plan, Pack, Repurpose

From the City of Berkeley:

reduce waste this thanksgiving email

Happy Holidays!

The Gigantic Team

 

 

 

California’s SB 1383: Communicating about Food Recovery

The Gigantic Team
Food recovery cuts waste and eases food insecurity.

California SB 1383 looms large on many of our clients’ minds—and on ours, as we help with the outreach portion of implementing the law locally. It’s an exciting prospect to see not only downstream measures like organics recycling mandated statewide but also upstream prevention, with the requirement to recover 20 percent of currently disposed food that’s edible to feed people. In this blog, we share some of our experience creating outreach tools for food recovery.

 

For local jurisdictions, this means not only figuring out the nuts and bolts of a functioning food recovery system, but also how to communicate to the affected parties. And the clock is ticking—by or before February 1, 2022, jurisdictions need to provide “outreach and education” to the first wave of affected commercial edible food generators as well as food recovery organizations and services.

The law may seem overwhelming, but fortunately a lot of the basic principles of good outreach are helpful here:

  1. Segment your audience(s)

    Consider your outreach and messaging to the different audiences as separate efforts. For example, the content, timing and channel of your outreach to the first wave of large food businesses (the state calls them “Tier 1” businesses) will differ from the second wave of smaller food businesses (called “Tier 2”), and both will differ from food recovery organizations.

    There will likely be only a small number of Tier 1 businesses for most counties, and they will require direct outreach—phone calls, web meetings, emails and visits. Your learnings from reaching out to Tier 1 can help streamline your efforts for Tier 2. Consider this a test run!

  2. Engage stakeholders

    Put yourself in the shoes of businesses — they are not steeped in “1383” like we are. Since this is new territory for all parties, consider having interviews or web meetings with businesses to help you develop your content and/or test your messaging to see if it is clear.

  3. Create outreach tools with clear and inclusive language.

    Craft messaging with an eighth-grade reading level in mind—which is what magazines and popular literature generally use.

    • Avoid regulatory terminology as much as possible and translate industry jargon into everyday terms anyone can understand.
    • For example, define the term “recovery.” This is a term unfamiliar to businesses. Our clients have found it preferable to using the term “donation.” If that’s the case for you, help your audience understand what “recovery” is and provide context. For example, say, “Separate edible food that would otherwise be composted or landfilled so it can be “recovered” to feed people.”
    • Be considerate and inclusive in your language e.g., say “food insecure” rather than “hungry.”
  1. Plan a “multi-touch” outreach effort.
    • Start with an official notification letter, mailed 6 months in advance. Keep your first “touch” simple, high level and focused on what’s coming. Rather than overwhelming them with details, get people’s attention first.
    • Create a web page or site to hold detailed information, including any legal documents such as a local ordinance or a model contract for edible food collection services.
    • Follow up your letter with direct outreach to affected businesses and food recovery organizations. Business outreach best practices have always relied on phone calls, emails, meetings and technical assistance to get results.
    • To build general awareness of 1383 in the business community, consider partners like chambers of commerce, business associations and environmental health departments, and ask to be included in announcements using their email lists and social media channels.

SB 1383 is a complex law and an exciting prospect with laudable goals. Using the basic rules of good outreach and remembering that businesses need direct outreach, you will be on your way to helping California put edible food to better use—all while fighting climate change!