Savvy PR practitioners can persuade people to do a lot of
things. But getting an entire city to embrace a program focused on
the messiest, smelliest, most unpleasant items in its garbage is no
small feat for even the best communicators.
In 2001, San Francisco, one of the first cities to begin
recycling in the 1980s, was falling way behind a California state
mandate requiring that 50 percent of garbage be recycled. The city
was coming in at only 42 percent.
Norcal Waste Systems, the parent company of San Francisco's
garbage companies, knew it would have to step up its efforts to get
citizens recycling more of their garbage. The company worked with
the city to figure out new ways to reduce the amount of trash
headed to landfills.
Because San Francisco has relatively little "green space," it
couldn't compensate by increasing recycling of lawn clippings like
many areas.
Instead, city and corporate officials devised a new plan that
would include recycling new items. They would also implement a
simple three-color cart system to make the new recycling program
"as easy as 1-2-3."
The problem: that third cart. There was a blue cart for the
usual recyclables, including bottles, cans, newspaper and other
items San Franciscans were used to sorting out of their trash.
There was a black cart for garbage. But there was a new green cart
for a whole new category of recyclable waste: food waste.
Getting citizens to sort food waste out of their other garbage
was going to be a messy job, and Norcal knew it. The company turned
to its PR agency of record, Singer Associates, to create a
grassroots campaign that would put San Francisco back on the
recycling map.
A Dirty Job
"Any time you change people's habits, it's difficult," says Adam
Alberti, the account supervisor on the Singer team. "San Francisco
is a very civic-minded place, and composting was not a completely
foreign concept." So, the team knew that if they could make the
process seem simple and emphasize the benefits to the community,
they would be able to move the needle.
In addition to a paid advertising campaign, the Singer team
worked with Norcal's employees to implement a grassroots,
community-based awareness program as the carts began to roll out in
various locations across the city. The communications staffers
emphasized the 1-2-3 ease of the three-cart system, and they also
created messages around a "closed- loop" recycling program.
"People recycle materials and then those materials go somewhere
and no one knows what happens to them," Alberti explains. "We
emphasized that we had adopted this closed-loop recycling concept
by demonstrating how it works."
At community meetings, Norcal representatives would show
attendees how the food waste from their tables was turned into a
compost product used by local organic farmers, who grew fruits and
vegetables that ended up right back on San Franciscans' plates,
closing that open loop.
Singer and Norcal also worked together to:
- Conduct a media relations campaign, focusing primarily on local
media to get the message to San Franciscans through their community
media outlets. - Build massive community outreach. Alberti and his team wanted
citizens to hear about the program straight from the trash
collectors they saw on a weekly basis and the supervisors they
spoke to over the phones. They trained the drivers and route
supervisors on key messages. - Arranged more than 170 town hall and community meetings so
citizens' associations and other groups could hear more about the
program.
The Results
Singer Associates measured customer satisfaction through a
variety of phone surveys, and citizens have begun hauling out their
green carts.
In fact, San Franciscans in parts of the city where the system
has not yet rolled out have been calling Norcal to ask when their
three carts will arrive.
In addition, Norcal's measurement shows that the city's
recycling has shot from 42 percent of its trash to 51 percent. The
results have prompted the city to set its sights high, with a
long-term goal of 75 percent of garbage recycled by 2010.
Campaign Stats
Timeframe: Roll-out began in June 2001 and is ongoing
Budget: $750,000
Advertising: $400,000
Community outreach: $250,000 (including development of creative
materials)
Media relations: $100,000
Singer had three employees working on the account full-time and
one person working on it part-time. Agency employees remained
largely behind-the-scenes, Adam Alberti, account supervisor, says,
because getting the drivers and route supervisors to talk to the
citizens not only endeared the Norcal employees to their
communities, but helped citizens to regard the program as coming
from a familiar and trusted source.
Singer, meanwhile, focused on getting media coverage (in outlets
like local media as well as national media like NBC "Nightly News")
and training Norcal employees for the community events.
Contact: Alberti, [email protected]