King County Recycle More. It’s Easy To Do.

Goal and Objectives Program goal: Increase single-family residential recycling as measured by waste diversion rates (by weight) Communication objectives:  Motivate target audiences to recycle more/better  Help overcome in-home convenience barriers  Create and provide a consistent “how-to” recycling message that can be used County-wide

King County: Recycle More, It’s Easy to Do. Research showed that 94% of people said they recycled everything they could, yet 50% of what is in garbage cans is recyclable. In-home interviews > Conducted day before garbage day > Interviewer and “sorter” visited families > Sorter took garbage and recycling into back yard > Brought recyclable items into home and interviewer asked about why they ended up in the garbage Key findings > People know what can and can’t be recycled > Items generated outside the kitchen were more likely to end up in the garbage (convenient location of recycle bins is key) > Items with the “ick” factor (e.g. peanut butter jar, cat food can) often ended up in garbage > Families with a recycling champion did a better job of recycling Research

Approach Prompts: Use a combination of social marketing outreach and broad-based education tactics to educate and remind Change the Norm: Encourage the residential population base that believes they already recycle well to do it better Incentives: Use a grassroots social marketing approach to provide one-on-one education and behavior-change incentives to residents Measure: Measure changes pre and post campaign by looking at recycled tonnage

Campaign Theme Recycle More. It’s Easy to Do.

Campaign Elements Media Outreach Media events and ongoing pitching (prompts and norms) Outreach Project Driveway (outreach) Advertising Print, radio, TV & transit station trucks (prompts & norms) Retail Partnerships Discount convenience tools (incentives)

Media Outreach Challenge: How to make the old news of recycling exciting and worthy of media coverage? > Factoid: Did you know that more than half of what goes to our landfill is recyclable? Have a neighborhood compete to see who can decrease their garbage weight > Tracked garbage for six weeks > Media events for initial weigh-in and end to announce winner > Created profiles of each family and what they did Results > 3.8 million impressions: Three-part series in The Seattle Times, six television stories that ran 17 times, and five radio stories. 7

Outreach “Project Driveway” > Recruited 24 organizations to decorate 96 gallon toters > Toters on display traveled to 5 malls, the zoo and a children's’ festival (2 weeks rotations) > During busy times, staffed with recycling education volunteers Community Events > Focus on cities with low recycling rates (>35%) > In-person education at events with incentives (e.g. spatula) > Visual to draw people in: Cube of Food 8

Advertising TV: Three ads targeting specific barriers Print: In community papers Radio: Focused on creating a social norm: “I am a total recycler” Transfer station trucks: Prompt

Retail Partnerships Bartell Drugs > Provided discount on and promotion of recycling containers > Included free recycling labels for containers Papa Murphy’s Pizza > Information on pizza boxes encouraging people to recycling in their yard waste cart QFC > Compostable bags and food waste containers to help overcome food waste recycling barriers > In-store tabling with in-person education

2009 Activities: Grassroots Outreach Pilot Cities Outreach > Targeting Federal Way, Kent, and Snoqualmie > Meetings held to develop specific local outreach > Focused on opportunities for broadest impact – HOAs, bill insert, school newsletters, local events Cube of Food Community Events > Visual representation of family food waste > KUBE Summer Jam, Snoqualmie Railroad Days, Issaquah Salmon Days Farmers’ Markets > Food scrap recycling and composting education at 8 farmers’ markets

Outcomes: Methodology Garbage and recycling waste sorts pre and post campaign: > Looked at: Total lbs of recyclables disposed in garbage Total lbs of recyclables recycled Capture rates for selected recyclable materials (total % of that material that is recycled)

Outcomes: Recycling Quantities > Households recycled 2.8 lbs per month more in April-August 2007 than in the same period in > 3% decrease per household – 6 million lb increase total

Outcomes: Garbage Quantities > Households disposed 3.6 lbs per month less in April-August 2007 than in the same period in 2006 > 25% decrease per household

Outcomes: Recycling Capture Rates > Preliminary capture rates increased for all materials in 2007