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Recycling
- So Simple, It's Easy
Client:
ECT Recycling and London Borough of Barnet
Campaign: Recycling - So Simple, It's Easy
Timescale: August 2001 - March 2006
| Setting
the Context |
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Until
2001, the only recycling facilities available
to Barnet residents consisted of a bi-monthly
paper service, as well as recycling banks. The
paper-only service had a bad reputation for
reliability and suffered from a low participation
rate. In 2001 Barnet, along with ever other
English council, was also set tough recycling
targets that they had to meet by 2005.
In
response to this situation, the London Borough
of Barnet formed a partnership with ECT Recycling
to provide a recycling service that would enable
residents to recycle 40% of their rubbish from
home.
To
ensure the service's success, the partnership
decided to instigate a sustained, five-year
awareness campaign to restore confidence in
the concept of recycling, to let residents know
how to use the service and to raise awareness
about why recycling is so important.
The
PR agency, Upward Curve PR was commissioned
to devise and run the campaign.
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| Objectives |
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To
raise and maintain general awareness of the need
for residents to recycle more of their rubbish |
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To
create a favourable attitude to specific recycling
services, including: (a) Recycle from Home (b)
Flats Recycling Service (c) the Civic Amenity
and Recycling Centre (d) Schools Recycling Service |
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To
increase awareness of specific materials that
residents do not recycle enough of |
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To
increase awareness and participation in low performing
areas within Barnet |
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| Campaign
Approach |
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After
reviewing the available research on consumer attitudes
towards recycling and taking into account local factors,
it was decided that the campaign should:
Avoid
complex or ambiguous terminology - The waste
industry often talks about 'waste', 'refuse', 'landfill'
or 'incineration', where as most people are much more
likely to respond to terms such as 'rubbish', 'dump',
'burn it' or 'dump it'.
Respond to consumers' key motivations
- Consumers often think that recycling is time consuming,
in response the campaign has tried to emphasis that
the services provided are quick, easy, available and
personally beneficial.
Avoid blame - Consumers prove hostile
to blame and see recycling as part of the job of the
council, as a result the campaign has tried to emphasise
shared responsibility.
Use positive messages - The campaign
messages have been designed to be empowering, they
have not assumed an interest in recycling, they have
stressed the responsibility of all and have emphasised
the local context.
Target opinion formers, as well as residents
- In a community context, the influence of community
leaders, as well as children when it comes to forming
opinions cannot be underestimated.
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| PR
Vehicles |
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The
campaign has been designed to be integrated and sustained
by making use of the full range of council and commercial
communication vehicles available.
These
vehicles have included:
Local
media - Features and news aimed at the two local newspapers,
as well as Barnet's residents' magazine and the council's
magazine for tenants.
Electronic media - Information delivered via Barnet
council's website, electronic notice boards, intranet, email
and ECT's website.
Advertising - Using newspapers, bus backs, six sheet
poster sites, A1 poster sites and bus shelter poster sites.
Events - Such as Barnet's Environmental Fair, as
well as competitions targeted at schools and residents.
Marketing Material - Such as ECT's newsletter for
residents, information flyers, posters etc
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| Evaluation
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The
campaign is evaluated using a variety of mechanisms including:
Surveys
- Barnet conducts an annual survey of resident's views when
it comes to different services.
Service Performance - Has the amount recycled by
residents gone up? Do the number of requests for a service
increased after a particular PR activity.
OTS - Opportunities To See, advertising, marketing
and on-line materials
Media Evaluation - Articles are evaluated in terms
of OTS, perception (positive, negative or neutral) and key
message content.Results
August 2001 - April 2003
Media
Evaluation and OTS
Total
number of items in the local, professional and national
press: 41
Total number of positive items: 26
Total number of neutral items: 15
Total number of OTS (Opportunity To See)
via local, council and national press: 2,660,121
Total number of OTS using other media such as advertising:
760736
Service
Performance
The
recycling rate in September 2001 stood at around 7% per
month.
The recycling rate in November 2002 stood at just below
13%
Total number of households receiving the kerbside
Service: 116,000
Number of visitors to CA and recycling centre
October 2001 - August 2002: 112,866
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