Our municipality provides each household with a waste bin and a comingled recycling bin (paper, glass, plastics, and metals). On average 30% of everything that is thrown into household waste bins can be recycled. Our big aim at the moment is to reduce this figure.
My idea is to commission an artist to make a large sculpture, one that would stand above a crowd, completely made out of items that can be recycled in the comingled recycling bins. The sculpture could rove around to shopping centres, sporting events, public spaces etc. The aim would be to communicate what can be recycled in a fun, alternative interesting manner and in a way that hopefully prompts people to talk about what they have seen.
Has anyone attempted anything like this? Send me your fabulous words of wisdom.
Eve Kirkwood
Waste Minimisation Education Officer
Brisbane City Council
Australia
Using Sculpture to Communicate Recycling
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Hi Eve,
I just attended a webinar with Keep America Beautiful (kab.org) with Wes Schultz and Julie Colehour.
Julie's group ran a program in King County Washington that really targeted increasing recycling rates by addressing barriers such as the "ick" factor (having to clean containers before recycling) and the convenience factors. Really great work done out there, I'd recommend checking it out. I don't know her personally, so I can't introduce you, but I was very impressed with her presentation and program. Some materials are on this website: http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Symposium2011&printer_friendly=1 towards the bottom under Case Studies. Look for:
Using Social Marketing to Push Recycling to the Next Level in King County [PDF] [Example Video: Quicktime]
Julie Colehour, Principal, Colehour+Cohen
I love the idea of public art as a way to draw attention. Julie's example can also provide some marketing ideas for the action you hope to inspire in your campaign.
Best of luck!
Michelle
Michelle Vigen
Research Analyst, Behavior & Human Dimensions Program
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)
http://www.aceee.org
I don't know how CBSM this really is, but I think that as part of a deeper campaign, public art--especially if you move it around--can help draw attention to your campaign in a fun way.
We just did this as part of a campaign to have residents recycle paper cartons. We had sculptures of a crane (7 ft tall, 80+ pounds) and a heron (5 ft tall) with carton plummage created by a local artist. Each time we moved them, it gave us another opportunity to release a photo and caption to the media, etc. noting where the birds could be viewed and where they were going next--and of course their message about recycling cartons.
Be warned though: moving a big sculpture around is labor intensive!
Also, one of ours was "stolen" (turned out the perpetrator thought he was rescuing it from being recycled). So be sure to secure it, even if it seems too big and awkward to be much of a target. On the other hand, we got the missing crane back and this got us more press coverage than anything!
Kate Melby
Emmet County Recycling
United States