When speaking to anyone leading or innovating in the waste industry, the shared, repeated message is that the general public needs to be engaged for recycling and resource recovery to be successful.
But whose responsibility is that? And what is the best way to do it?
For the most part in Australia, local government is taking ownership of educating residents about the importance of using their waste collection amenities correctly. As councils have limited funds for marketing, social media have become the go-to channels for such communication campaigns.
The Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) undertook research with councils in 2011-12 about their experiences with social media. The report concluded that councils have “much to gain from using social media”, and that “a strategic approach to social media can achieve effective outcomes in engaging with communities”.
One council in Victoria has successfully tapped into this trend. Its video, featuring a real-life refuse collector, to engage residents with the value of their waste and recycling service has gone viral.
Moreland City Council featured a side-load driver and operator in the first of a series of films aimed at promoting the value of local government services to the community. The innovative ‘It’s dirty work’ video shows Keith “The Garbo” Lawson at work on his green waste collection round, sharing his thoughts on the realities of his job and his contribution to a vital public service.
“Our objective was to personalise the service, whilst getting across the message about the cost of providing it against value for money,” explains Moreland City Council Marketing and Communications Manager Marco Bass. “Our waste services management recommended Keith because he was articulate about his role and enthusiastic to be part of the campaign.”
Going Viral
The video became a significant social media hit, with over 7,000 views on Facebook and over 700 likes, shares and comments to date.
“Keith’s personality gives a face to waste collecting, in presenting the service from his point of view: how he likes doing his work but raise awareness of things that make the job difficult,” Marco says. “That seems to have struck a chord with the community.”
After seeing residents’ response to the subject, the council immediately followed up with a 10 things you need to know about waste guide, which it published on its website and in the local ‘Moreland Leader’ newspaper.
“The public reaction was so positive that we piggybacked on it with the ‘10 things’ guide,” Marco says. “This aimed to help residents better understand what waste they should put in which bin and what materials can be recycled, as well as some weblinks to other useful information about our waste services.”
Moreland City Council’s experience with Facebook bears out ACELG’s assertion that using social media can be a valuable tool in communicating with the general public. Although, ACELG does add that organisations need to have additional channels for targeting residents who don’t have internet access.
Nevertheless, it appears that when it comes to communicating about waste services, using social media is anything but rubbish.