CRRA 2023 Conference and Trade Show

Co-Chair

Co-Chair

Ruth Abbe is co-chair of the CRRA Global Recycling Council which advocates for:  Zero Waste, End Welfare for Wasting, and Jobs from Design and Discards. She is a Zero Waste practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in recycling and composting program and facility development. As the principal of Abbe & Associates LLC, she is working with municipalities across the U.S. to develop the social and physical infrastructure to achieve Zero Waste.

Behavior Change for Zero Waste through Community-Based Social Marketing

California communities are faced with a dizzing array of impacts (climate change, pandemics, social and political upheaval, generational divides) and must motivate residents and business to change behavior. State law requires communities to reduce waste and increase recycling, composting, and surplus food recovery. Investing in the same strategies over and over again and expecting the same results is an exercise in futility. 

The Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) method of outreach and education was created to produce lasting and sustainable changes in the actions people take everyday. Historically, many costly and time-intensive programs fail to drive behavior change due to only addressing economic incentives or attitude change through increased information. Many campaigns have too broad a scope with not enough focus, and with mixed results. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, the author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior-An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing, created the CBSM method to address the psychological motivations and barriers that influence people to behave differently. CBSM encourages program administrators to take a systematic, empirical approach to behavior change, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of their program dollars.

Before you invest in that next mailer, social marketing strategy, website redesign, or outreach campaign, come and hear about how to  design behavior change strategies that "stick."

Senior Associate

Nancy Roberts has over 25 years of experience in marketing and public relations, communications, and project management for mission-driven organizations. At Gigantic Idea Studio she focuses on strategic communications planning, metrics and integrating social media into traditional outreach campaigns. Recent projects include digital and general outreach strategy for the California Carpet Stewardship Program, Zero Waste Marin, MCSTOPPP, City of San Rafael, California Stormwater Quality Association and Livermore Recycles. A climate activist in her spare time, Nancy holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from The George Washington University and an M.B.A. in Sustainable Enterprise from Dominican University of California.

SB1383 Outreach and Perception of Food Waste and Climate Change

The implementation of SB 1383 has increased outreach to Californians about the connection between climate change and food waste. But are the spirit and message of the law sinking in with the general public? Has that knowledge changed behavior? We will present an update on a survey of perception of the connection of food waste to climate change that was first conducted  - and presented at CRRA – in 2020, that we conducted again in 2023. Has the public got the message and changed behavior, or is there still some distance to go? In addition to analyzing results of the second survey round, we will present various examples of climate messaging in SB 1383 outreach. Participants will get tips for incorporating the messaging to maximize effectiveness.

Co-Owner

Kirk is a co-owner and principal of ReCREATE, specializing in waste characterizations, data management and tracking, and logistics coordination with waste haulers and municipal staff. Over the past decade Kirk has worked with public, private, and non-profit organizations in the waste industry, from state agencies to local municipalities.

Kirk’s professional specialties include the development and implementation of waste characterization studies; including cart-based sampling and route audits, coordinating with haulers and municipality staff to plan and coordinate fieldwork around complex routing schedules, developing data collection and management systems, and development of outreach and education materials.

Oops Tags vs In Person Outreach - What's more effective?

ReCREATE was selected to develop and conduct a recycling contamination outreach pilot project across 9 communities in the San Bernardino County JPA. The 1,200 household study included three test groups: a control, an oops tag only group, and an oops tag and direct contract (in-person outreach) group. The project set out to understand 1) how effective cart tagging versus cart tagging AND door-to-door outreach is on behavior change 2) which type of messaging resonated most with residents and 3) how social media can be utilized to engage the community in the process.

The presentation will cover the development of the study design, the challenges of implementing the study in communities spread across a vast area of California’s high desert and mountains, and project successes. The presentation will include the behavior change and contamination reduction results from the three test groups using household cart-based waste characterization data to support the findings. 

By sharing our methodology and an analysis of our results, we hope that it may provide insights for other communities seeking to address contamination in their resource recovery programs.

Co-Founder

Natalie is an education and outreach strategist that has 12 years of experience working with local jurisdictions across the nation on policy planning, recycling and organics implementation and creating effective communitywide behavior change. Her background lies in public relations specific to climate change, and she uses her passion and training in community based social marketing to educate other thousands of businesses and residents about sustainability. She has multiple online education and outreach courses, has developed a recycling coordinator training program, manages the Education and Outreach team and oversees the firm's projects related to edible food and single-use plastics stakeholder engagement and implementation.

Project Manager

Chelsea Nelson is the Project Manager at Action Research where she supports the development of research-based outreach programs to spark behavior change related to pollution prevention, food scraps diversion, and recycling. With over five years of experience in the behavioral and environmental sciences, she has worked closely with local and state government agencies to launch campaigns to reduce household food waste and support the implementation of SB 1383. Chelsea graduated with honors from the University of San Diego with a BA in Environmental Science and Psychology.

To Pail or Not to Pail?

In January 2022, SB 1383 went into effect, prompting California agencies to develop new outreach efforts to promote participation in residential food scraps collection programs. At the same time, most of the available research was focused on reducing household food waste, and little was known about effective behavioral approaches to engage residents in proper organics disposal. Beginning in April 2022, Action Research, in collaboration with the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority, developed, implemented, and pilot-tested new outreach approaches with the goal of identifying the most cost-effective method for promoting participation in the residential organics collection program. The outreach was developed and tested using the community-based social marketing (CBSM) framework. CBSM is a data-driven process that focuses on reducing barriers to target behaviors while incorporating behavioral science tools to enhance motivation. The outreach strategies were informed by a mail survey administered to Salinas Valley residents to identify the perceived benefits and barriers to participating in the curbside food scraps collection program. Three strategy variations were pilot-tested and compared to a control group of households who only received information about the program. The strategies consisted of three core elements: an educational flyer, a normative feedback letter (mailed to two groups), and a countertop pail (delivery or pickup). Participation rates were evaluated using lid flips in three treatment neighborhoods and one control neighborhood. The results of the lid flips demonstrated that outreach approaches incorporating countertop pails were significantly more effective than education alone in getting residents to participate in food scraps diversion.