Here in Calgary (Alberta, Canada) residences have 3 carts that they place their waste into: a blue cart for recyclables, a green cart for organics (kitchen and yard) and a black cart for everything else. This summer I have a team going around looking for contamination in the carts (i.e. organics in the blue cart rather than the green, recyclables in the black cart and so on). When we find a problem we are going to tag the cart. However, we are particularly interested in folks who are not fully utilizing their green cart. For these folks we are not only going to tag their cart but we are going to follow up (within a week) with a knock on their door. When we knock on their door we want to find out what particular barriers they are facing to fully utilize their green cart.
My question is: When we knock on their door do we start off the conversation by very clearly pointing out that their cart was tagged and that we are interested in discussing why they are having difficulties participating OR do we not directly address the fact that their cart was tagged and simply ask more general questions about what they feel are barriers to participation?
Dave Merredew
Leader, Community & Customer Initiatives
City of Calgary: Waste and Recycling Services
Canada
Hi Dave,
I'm sure your priorities have changed slightly in light of recent events, but my two cents on your question stem from some time I spent doing tech support for a computer company rather than any formal education.... ultimately, people hate being told they are wrong, so I would not mention the tag on their cart at all. If I were to script that conversation, it would look somewhat like this:
"Hi. We are working for the City this summer and are in the neighbourhood talking to people about the 3 cart system. Have you been using your carts regularly? [provide talking points] Do you have any questions about the system? We've heard from some of the neighbours that there was some confusion over XXX [insert the reason their bin was flagged] we want to make sure that everyone is on the same page in regards to....."
This will make it a 'we' conversation rather than "you did something wrong and we are here to talk to you" which could be taken poorly.
Best of luck with this initiative & the cleanup!
Karen Mason-Bennett
Program Coordinator
NEAT
Canada