RIP, Arthur Boone: Bay Area Recycling Champion

The Gigantic Team
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

 

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

Lisa Duba

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.

 

Recycling: Hero or Villain? The Public Is Confused

Nancy Roberts

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.

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

Myer Venzon

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?

Nancy Roberts

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

Nancy Roberts

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.

The Role of Art in Making Change

Stefanie Pruegel

Angela Davis at Oakland Museum graphicBig, complex environmental issues like climate change can easily overwhelm and lead to resignation and denial, instead of creative problem solving. While facts and how-to information have their place in environmental behavior change campaigns, so do art and fostering imagination beyond rational understanding. The Oakland Museum of California currently has an excellent exhibition about African American educator and activist Angela Davis, whose fight against mass incarceration and racism in the 60’s and 70’s made her an icon of Black liberation around the world. The show draws on a huge archive of newspaper clippings, posters, pamphlets, buttons and pop culture objects to tell Davis’s story in the political and cultural context of the time. What makes many of the visuals so powerful is how the call for social change and art are intertwined. Most striking are the political posters with bold, screen-printed images and collages.

In a recorded interview, looping on a large screen as part of the exhibit, Davis comments on the crucial role art plays in social change movements. She notes, “Art can produce knowledge that doesn’t occur with a simple political speech.” Such knowledge doesn’t arise from taking in facts alone and involves much more than the rational part of our brain. As with storytelling, art activates all parts of the human brain, enabling the level of empathy and engagement that can indeed motivate the change we need to see. This is especially important when there is urgency to act but the path forward isn’t clear. As Davis says, “Art enriches our ideas about change. It allows us to grasp what we cannot yet understand and enables us to imagine different modes of being.”

Vivid visual communication is a staple of effective behavior change campaigns.The upcoming Earth Month offers an opportunity to make art a campaign focus. How do you use the power of art in your outreach?

Hard Numbers, Hard Truths: How Data from Spot Checks, Surveys and More Guide Outreach

The Gigantic Team

We know it’s best to base outreach on data that we get from research. Formal research can be costly, but actionable data is all around us – and it can help make public outreach more effective.

For the 2022 California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) Conference, Gigantic participated in a session about the use of surveys and spot checks to guide outreach. Our presentation gave examples from two of Gigantic’s clients: Cities of Milpitas and Livermore.

Among the suggestions:

  • Integrating some research into your outreach plan is better than none. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good: include lid flips and surveys into your budgets as feasible. There’s also data that does not need a specific budget because:
  • Outreach data is all around us. Your agency may not be able to afford a statistically rigorous survey, but quantitative data from hauler reports or lid flipping can be useful guides to what is working and what challenges arise. Qualitative data (individual questions or reactions that represent the concerns of a larger audience) can be gathered from phone help lines, comments at public meetings or from social media posts. Website statistics show us which content is or is not being accessed, what users are searching for and how/when they accessed the site; this is all guiding data for outreach.
  • Use data to react in real time. Are you getting a lot of questions on your social channel about plastic bags? Are lid flips showing an increase in a particular item of contamination? Respond to these questions with blog or social posts, or additional newsletter content, as promptly as possible.

See the full presentation here:

Learn more about CRRA here.

Gigantic Growth! Welcome to our new Associates!

The Gigantic Team

Our team has gotten even more Gigantic! We are pleased to announce the addition of Myer Venzon and Dennis Uyat to our team of Associates.

Myer is a marketing professional with skills and experience in strategy, digital and social media, communications, branding and creative. At Gigantic, Myer contributes to a variety of aspects of our campaigns, with a particular focus on digital strategy. Previously, Myer worked in the green beauty industry, where he was able to grow his passion for marketing with ethical and sustainable products. He is environmentally conscious and does his part by recycling old jokes passed down from his dad.

Myer holds a B.S. in Marketing Management and an M.B.A. in Global Innovation from California State University, East Bay. 

 

Dennis has worked with us on a per project basis since 2019. Dennis is a passionate environmental communicator with a lot of hands-on experience in engaging community members in sustainable behaviors with a focus on zero waste. As a field rep, Dennis has helped set up recycling and composting systems, working with residents and businesses throughout the Bay Area. They have led multilingual recycling facility tours to international delegations, elementary school students and community groups. Dennis has also been a leader with Zero Waste Youth.

dennis head shotDennis holds a B.A. in Geography with a minor in Geospatial Information Science Technology from UC Berkeley and an A.A. in Recycling and Resource Management from Golden West College in Huntington Beach. They hold a certificates in Master Resource & Conservation and Master Compost & Solid Waste from the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability, and Zero Waste Community Associate by Zero Waste USA.

We are excited for our clients to work with both Myer and Dennis in the near future!

 

Selling Nothing: Outreach to Reduce Consumption

Nancy Roberts

Survey questions asked about current consumption attitudes and habits.

We love working on all kinds of waste and sustainability issues with our clients, and we especially enjoy the challenge of moving people toward a more zero waste lifestyle. Our most recent presentation for the CRRA Conference (see slideshow below) looked at the challenge of “selling folks” on the behavior of buying less stuff. “Selling Nothing” introduced some ways of encouraging less consumption, such as by focusing on specific items, or reminding people of the positive feeling that comes from sharing or helping others, or by focusing on specific behaviors, for instance holiday gift-giving, to encourage buying less stuff.

We then presented results of a brief survey of Californians about their feelings around any recent changes in their consumption habits. Many of the questions were borrowed – well, reused — from a 2015 survey done in New Zealand about the connection between buying and people’s feeling of well-being.

A few findings from our July 2021 survey, which gathered 350 responses from Californians:

  • A majority of respondents (53%) confirm they are consciously reducing the amount of stuff they have bought in the last 3 months.
  • Unsurprisingly in this time of economic uncertainty and pandemic effects, over half of those who bought less did so because they had less money to spend or wanted to save more. These answers could give us some ideas about how to position non-consumption.
  • More than two-thirds of respondents agreed with statements about over-consumption’s negative impact on “future generations” and “the planet.” So seemingly awareness is not the issue in cutting consumption, it’s more a question of persuasion.
  • The final question of the survey was “Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?” — asked at the end so as not to prejudice responses to the other questions. 43% said yes, 34% said no, and 18% weren’t sure if they considered themselves environmentalists. The comments revealed some tensions: some considered being “green” too hard or that environmentalists are too radical, while a few were outright hostile to the label.

Key takeaways include:

  • “Selling” not buying in general is a tough challenge; try focusing on specific actions, items or situations in order to chip away at the social pressure to consume.
  • While we encourage source reduction to tackle the issues of waste and climate change, there are many reasons people may reduce consumption that could be included in a source reduction campaign. A primary driver is saving money.
  • A majority of respondents understand that rampant consumption is harmful to people and planet in the long run. BUT…
  • A majority also acknowledge that buying stuff makes them happy. So that clarifies the challenge for outreach campaigns that aim to reduce consumption – how can we offer a form of happiness to replace the happiness of buying?

Our research and efforts continue!

See the presentation: