With almost universal participation and contamination rates around 0.2% the systems for collection established by Goulburn Mulwaree Council and Lachlan Council as part of the Groundswell City to Soil project are leading the way in Source Separation of household organics. The community engagement strategy adopted by the councils is simple, cheap and effective however it does challenge entrenched approaches to waste education and the usual way of doing things.
The two councils have been providing a combined food scrap and garden waste collection to 10,800 households for almost 16 months as part of the Groundswell City to Soil project funded by the NSW Environmental Trust. The Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Inside Waste highlighted the low contamination rates achieved by householders in the project. Contamination rates have ranged between 0.076%, 0.4% and 0.2% over the past 16 months and have never exceeded 0.4%.
The Groundswell City to Soil community engagement program is based on the assumption that to get people to do something, you need to give them the right tools, information and motivation.
Right Tools.
Fundamentally we need to make it easy for people to do what we want them to do. The challenge here is to find tools that are universally desirable to use.
More importantly, the tools need to pass the “75 year old mother” test. Basically, if you can’t get your granny to use the tools, then you haven’t got the right tools. One of the main reasons why people don’t compost is they don’t like that smelly kitchen bucket. So we need a system that does not produce odours and does not need washing. People are used to placing food scraps into plastic bags, tying them up and placing them in a wheelie bin. So it makes sense to replicate these existing behaviours.
The best tools we could find are vented kitchen bins and compostable bags. They work because they emulate and improve on what people are doing already. Compostable bags improve on the existing system because they eliminate odours in the kitchen AND in the wheelie bin. And yes, my 75 year old mother happily uses her vented bin and compostable bags to this day.
Right information.
Information about the collection needs to be provided in ways that reach everyone in the community regardless of literacy. We need to let people know exactly what we want them to do and why we want them to do it. Thought needs to be given to the tone of information as well as graphics and medium.
The Groundswell project has developed humble two colour graphics in preference to glossy photos and kept information relentlessly upbeat and as simple and inclusive as possible. Pictures of specific people with specific kitchens and food scraps will alienate anyone who can not relate to that image.
Rather than worry about multi lingual brochures, information about City to Soil has included drawings which explain what we want without the need for words or literacy. The project has purposefully chosen cheap or free forms of media including council mail outs, press releases, updates in rates notices, word of mouth, a blog and steered clear of glossy advertisements to maintain the simplicity and “normalness” of the collection.
A word about integrity
Our simple, constant message is “if you put your food and garden waste into this bin, we will compost it and get it back into agriculture.” It is a simple and powerful message.
The result is people KNOW that everything they put in the City to Soil bin is going to end up on a local farmer’s paddock. The collection becomes about food and food production rather than waste and garbage.
For this message to work however, you need to convince the community that this is what you are doing . You need to show them the compost and show them the occasional farmer and the occasional load of compost made from their food and garden waste being applied to a paddock.
A photo of one of the more photogenic of your customers preferably out in the paddock with some rolling hills, a truck full of beautiful compost, a few sheep and a short press release with a nice juicy quote from the farmers saying how wonderful the community is and how lovely the compost is, is always a winner.
Motivation
What gets people to source separate their organics? Why would people do this? For me this is the most interesting and contested area of the waste industry. I strongly believe that councils, waste companies and the government consistently underestimate the community. People assume that universal participation is unachievable and as a result design non compliance into their systems.
Obviously there is no single universal motivator to get people to correctly source separate. Our research showed that there were actually six. Specifically we trawled through the NSW DECCW “Who Cares about the Environment” research and found that there were 6 reasons why people might participate and different people would respond to one, some or all of those six.
The six motivators are:
- Help address climate change
- Reduce waste to landfill
- Reduce waste costs
- Improve agricultural soils
- Support local farmers
- Win prizes
By consciously using combinations of all six motivators in media releases, article and letters, we are able to reach the whole community. For example, someone who has no interest in climate change may be motivated by the prospect of reduced waste costs or reduced waste to landfill.
The purpose of running a prize program for zero contamination is to reward people for doing the right thing, generate positive messages about the program, generate community conversations and to reinforce the message that City to Soil is about food production rather than waste or garbage. Wherever possible, take a photo when presenting the prizes and get a short quote from the prize winner for a press release.
In summary, the Groundswell City to Soil Community Engagement Strategy taps into known motivators and transcends the requirement to change people’s values. Education messages and materials have been kept very simple.
The use of drawings & social marketing strategies ensures people do not have to be literate to correctly participate. The program transcends conventional education strategies which rely on values change or environmental awareness. It is also notable for its ease of implementation, simplicity, affordability and effectiveness.
The success of the education program is dependant on making sure that the right tools have been provided, and that the right motivators have been identified. People need to know what you want them to do as well as why. Strengthening the link between people and where their food comes from is integral to keeping physical contamination out of the organics stream.
A good community engagement strategy builds positive links between households, councils, processors and local farmers. And that can only be a good thing.
This article was written by Simone Dilkara and appeared in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Inside Waste. If you would like a pdf of just the article (not the whole magazine) please email simone.dilkara@environment.nsw.gov.au
