RIP, Arthur Boone: Bay Area Recycling Champion

creative NCRA sign made with all recyclable materials
The Gigantic team worked with Arthur Boone to create this sign for NCRA

The Gigantic team would like to take a moment to salute and honor Arthur Boone, who passed away in October at the age of 86. Boone was a pioneer and force of nature for recycling education and outreach in the Bay Area since the 1980s.

Described in Northern California Recycling Association (NCRA)’s remembrance as “an innovator, visionary, and somewhat of a crank” Arthur Boone started out as an Episcopal minister, then a civil rights worker, before founding the Oakland Recycling Association.There, he brought active questions and a constant search for improvement to the local recycling scene, tirelessly calling out “Obstacles to Zero Waste” and working to eliminate them. In the following years he would serve NCRA in various positions, including some 30 years on their board, and came up with the idea for the Recycling Update Conference, an annual “speed dating” event featuring 10-minute presentations for and by industry professionals that is valued to this day.

One memorable collaboration – partially built on Boone’s front lawn – occurred in 2011 when he tasked us with creating a NCRA conference sign out of recycled materials to celebrate recycling and composting. It was a true team effort to cut the recycled metal, attach the glass pieces and cardboard curls, and hot-glue the fake leaves and orange slices. The sign keeps on going – helped by several repairs over the years. It’s a joy to see it (and get a team photo with the sign) at every NCRA Recycling Update. All in all, a great and ongoing reminder of the creative and can-do spirit of Boone.

Boone’s achievements, including credit for planting 1,000 trees in the Bay Area—several just a block from our office have been noted in a Proclamation by StopWaste issued on his passing. After all his good work, may he rest in peace.

Gigantic team members with the sign at NCRA 2023
Gigantic team members with the sign at NCRA 2023

 

OOPS! Tags Tackle Cart Contamination

In environmental outreach work, reaching people when they are most open to effective feedback is always a challenge. Many waste agencies are using “oops tags” to indicate to residents that they have put the wrong items in the wrong carts, e.g. “OOPS – this item belongs in recycling” or “OOPS – only food scraps in the green cart, please!”

The Gigantic team has been working with clients on various kinds of OOPS tags for some years now. While we believe that customized, one-to-one outreach is effective, it is difficult to measure if the tags are responsible for positive impact.                     

We would love to experiment with taking the feedback one step further, by having haulers NOT pick up contaminated carts. This has been tried elsewhere, with positive results.

For now, we are continuing to refine and test various cart tags. Our latest effort: placing “OOPS” tags on Garbage carts, to draw attention to the large presence of food scraps and other items in the Garbage that should be recycled or composted.

Below are some examples of oops tags that Gigantic has created with various clients. We would love to discuss OOPS tags and the strategy behind them with you:

This tag, to be placed on Organics carts, is simple:

hang tag with pictues of what does and does not go in Binny

In 2023, we made a more elaborate tag that the outreach team could “customize”, depending on the contaminant. We understood from resident surveys that people were unsure or even skeptical about what happens to food scraps in the Organics cart. This tag also confirms that rich compost is made from the food scraps, and connects correct use of the organics cart with making healthy compost for farmers:

We are experimenting this year with placing an “oops” tag on the Garbage cart, calling out the items that should be in Recycling or Organics:

oops tag with comic - keep food scraps out of garbage

For Milpitas, we helped refine their tag design, which uses the same tag for all carts. Audit staff circle the appropriate cart, and provide very specific feedback on the types of items found (see image below). Milpitas staff have reported the tags are working work well, especially when they have the opportunity to speak directly with a resident, but that they need to add a few additional categories of contaminants.

While difficult to tie results directly to cart tagging, City staff noted that they are seeing some positive trends in households selected for a pilot project.  The pilot area received food waste prevention outreach and then OOPS tags shortly thereafter. Follow-up audits over two years show some improvements. The fullness of the food scrap compartment increased from 8.8% full to 24% full. At the same time, contamination decreased by 42.5%.

Milpitas oops tag with detailed examples of what goes where

There’s no one right way to use OOPS Tags, but they’re one of the most evidence-based ways to address contamination. They make a great addition to a cart-contamination reduction strategy.

Top Tips for Making Multilingual Food Scrap “How-To” Videos for Businesses and Multi-Family Buildings

video image in 3 language versionsFood scrap and organics collection programs pose a challenge to public agencies in terms of low participation and high contamination, especially where businesses and multi-family properties are concerned.

There’s turnover in staff and residents, and often there are language barriers. Producing content in multiple languages seems like one logical solution, but doing three separate videos can impact the budget and seem like a daunting logistical challenge…but it can be simplified!

Over the past few years, the Gigantic team helped City of Sunnyvale produce multilingual video content in a streamlined way to ensure they could produce content in multiple languages for a reasonable budget.

With the following tips, we created separate business-facing videos in Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese – using the same original footage shot in a commercial kitchen – for a reasonable budget.

Top tips for producing multilingual video content:

  • Show, don’t tell. Tell the story with filmed footage. Demonstrate key behaviors so your content instructs without the use of words as much as possible.
  • Use voice-over instead of dialog for extra details. This way, you can avoid dubbing over a person speaking to the camera.
  • Put key messages on-screen with simple graphics. These can be translated, so the video works even with sound off.
  • Film in real locations that resonate with the audience. This way the setting also provides context without using words.
  • Create the multilingual versions using the same filmed footage to save money. Just translate and record voice-over in each language and translate the screen graphics.
  • Promote in-language too. The best video must be seen to be effective. Create a keyword-rich video description in English and translate this, too. Post to your website, YouTube, Facebook or other channels using the translated promotional blurb. You can pay to promote videos specifically to online viewers that use any one of your targeted languages. Without paid promotion, most videos will not get views

Also, check out the Food Scraps Recycling for Apartments and Condos videos filmed with these same tips, in English, Chinese, and Spanish.

Business-facing Tips Videos for Sunnyvale:

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

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.

 

Applauding Green Accomplishments to Keep Them Growing

Eight champions from five organizations were honored at StopWaste’s award ceremony—truly inspiring individuals.

Most of our work here at Gigantic is about helping our clients nudge people toward certain environmental behaviors—preventing food waste, composting organics, keeping dirty car wash water out of storm drains, and so many more. No matter the topic, it’s easy to focus on the need to change behavior more than the need to celebrate when we do see progress. But that acknowledgment, or “confirmation messaging”, is just as important as all the calls to action.

I was reminded of that insight recently when working on StopWaste’s Environmental Leadership Awards that each year recognize a handful of organizations for innovation and achievements in waste prevention, climate resilience and other areas of sustainability.

As part of the preparations for the award ceremony and presentation, I get to interview the champions at each of these organizations. What makes them prioritize environmental practices well beyond legal requirements? What are the keys to success? And how can local government agencies support and amplify their good work?

What I find is that without exception it is the initiative and commitment of individuals that makes these businesses, nonprofits, schools and other entities leaders in their field and can have ripple effects throughout their organizations and beyond. At Drake’s Brewing Company, champion Hal was a cellar master for years, consistently finding greener ways to do thi

Stef notes that it’s been fun working on the annual awards promo with Michelle Fay from StopWaste for all these years.

ngs that also benefitted the company—and becoming the company’s first Sustainability Manager. Champion Becky at Spectrum Community Services was successful in switching the nonprofit’s senior meal service from disposable to reusable foodware with partner Sparkl Reusables and support from her ED. At Mohr Elementary School, teacher Sarah and PTA lead Susanne created an outstanding, hands-on environmental and climate literacy curriculum that helped move their school district to pass a district-wide waste resolution.

Sharing and celebrating these accomplishments at the award ceremony was truly inspiring. It was clearly gratifying and energizing to the champions who had put so much effort and passion into their work, and amplifying their success will surely inspire others.

Recycling: Hero or Villain? The Public Is Confused

Environmental specialists are working, like everyone else, in a polarized world where distrust of media and “truthiness” can make us question absolutely everything.

You’ve seen the headlines in everything from business press, public radio …

“Recycling Doesn’t Work”

“Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work”

“You Can’t Recycle Your Way Out”

“America’s Broken Recycling System”

At Gigantic, we work with clients whose jurisdictions:

  • Don’t accept “compostable” plastic
  • Do accept “compostable” plastic
  • Only accept Plastics # 1, 2, 5
  • Only accept “rigid” plastics
  • Ask you to put plastic bags in the Garbage
  • Ask you to put plastic bags in the Recycling
  • Accept paper cups in Recycling
  • Accept paper cups in the Garbage
  • Put pizza boxes in the Recycling
  • Put pizza boxes in the Organics

And on and on…

We can't recycle our way out of the plastic crisis - Insta post from Story of Stuff
Source: Story of Stuff Instagram

Is it any wonder that residents are wondering what’s going on?

If we had a magic wand, we’d wave it and make all this a lot simpler: focus on just a few of the most easily identified recyclable materials so that “waste” streams are clean and easily processed. We’d like to see:

  • All jurisdictions’ carts be the same color and labels as in other jurisdictions.
  • Every jurisdiction have the same “what goes where” instructions and
  • VASTLY simplify “what goes where” messaging to focus on the most recyclable items, in order to cut down on contamination. We have seen over and over that “wishcycling” is a real thing, and a real hassle for materials facilities.

But we don’t live in a perfect world. For now, environmental communicators need to be honest about the challenges of recycling, while reassuring the public that many problems can be solved and not to give up hope.

‘Tis the Season…for Zero Waste Messaging!

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

 

 

 

Understanding Your Audience: How Gigantic Uses Short-Form Videos to Reach Younger Audiences

In 2021, Gigantic Idea Studio began producing short videos for the Clean Water Program Alameda County, featuring the popular mascots Fred the Frog and Izzy Egret. A study by the University of Delaware found that, “while mascots may be great at inspiring action through their cheers and high fives, the biggest impacts of mascots may come through displays of disappointment with a negative outcome”. With this in mind, we focused on messaging that showed the impact of pollution on Fred and Izzy.

A key strategy was to distribute the videos through paid promotion on platforms that were popular with younger audiences. At the time, TikTok was becoming a popular platform with Gen Z, so in addition to producing the short videos in the traditional horizontal format, we created vertical versions to allow an optimized experience on TikTok. Gigantic Idea Studio created a TikTok channel for the campaign, and also posted the videos on Instagram Reels.

Fred & Izzy on TikTok

The results were impressive. The vertical version of the Dog Poop video had a CPM of $2.36, compared to $7.12 for the horizontal version on YouTube. Although views are counted differently depending on the platform, the TikTok version of the video also received more views than on YouTube, despite having double the budget.

Gigantic Idea Studio also found success with organic content on Instagram Reels. Its first reel received 3,059 views, compared to the average of 26 views for its previous horizontal video posts. On Earth Day 2023, we posted another reel that received 1,318 views.

To date, Gigantic Idea Studio’s TikTok channel has received 1,720,973 views of 8 videos, through 14 campaigns, and 9,543 likes with 482 followers.

Takeaways

Gigantic Idea Studio’s success teaches a few important lessons about reaching younger audiences with short-form videos:

  • Use humor and creativity. Younger audiences are attracted to content that is entertaining and engaging.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Younger audiences have short attention spans, so aim for videos that are 30 seconds or less.
  • Use vertical video. Younger audiences are more likely to watch videos on their mobile devices, so make sure your videos are formatted vertically.
  • Promote your videos on the right platforms. TikTok is a great platform for reaching younger audiences, but other platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are also gaining popularity.

If you’re looking to reach younger audiences with your marketing content, consider using short-form videos. Just be sure to keep the above tips in mind to create videos that are engaging and effective.

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

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.

Partner Power: Building Relationships to Amplify Our Messages

image of sample partner memo with images
Sample partner memo; click to view.

For our government and non-profit partners in environmental behavior change, the good news is: we’re all in this together. When our messaging about recycling, waste reduction, energy conservation and respect for nature spreads far and wide, we all win! So it’s smart to help each other reach as many people as possible.

That’s where the partner power comes in by creating a network of like-minded organizations and a process for sharing partner messages across groups and platforms. It’s a very simple idea: compile your sharable messages into a few easily “cut and pasted” formats, such as newsletter article, Facebook or Instagram, then send the memo to a curated list of partner organizations that pick up and share the content on their channels.

It’s a Win-Win

Not only does the partner memo amplify the original sender’s message, it provides content for those of us struggling to come up with new things to say in our e-news, website or social media.

Get started!

Make a list of the top organizations that share your values and communication topics. Some might be direct “competitors” such as a non-profit with a similar focus, or local governments, more general community organizations (that would be interested in helping their constituents, such as the public library. Reach out to these organizations and explain that you’d like to share content with them and invite them to share theirs with you. Set up your memo template and start sharing!

Top Tips for Effective Partner Memos

Send regularly, but not TOO often

Send your partner memos on a regular schedule if possible, say once a quarter. For time-sensitive messages, be sure to allow plenty of notice so that your content can be included at the right time for the recipient. In other words, don’t send your Christmas post to partners on December 23rd!

Make it easy!

The easier you make it, the more likely your content is to be shared. Include suggested headlines, pertinent links and, ALWAYS, images. Link to downloadable images that are properly sized for each channel. Be sure to specify if a photo credit as needed.

Reciprocate!

Share and share alike, right? Be open to sharing other organizations’ content in your channels. Showing the world that you are a good partner concerned about your community is an excellent strategy – and it’s the right thing to do.

Sometimes the simplest tools can be the most effective. A little effort to set up the partner memo system will pay off for months to come as your partner power and messaging takes flight.