Green Marketing and Outreach Campaigns

Terrence Gellenbeck with the city of Phoenix Public Works Department in Arizona presented his city's new recycling program Wednesday afternoon during the Green Marketing and Outreach Campaign session. Terrence provided excellent information on how they improved their recycling program by rolling out the “Recycling Changes Everything” campaign.

Keys to improving their city’s program included a three part initiative: new slogan, community outreach, and media outreach. The first part of their program included changing their slogan. The city has provided recycling since 1989 and had used the same recycling slogan for eight years, so Terrence believed the city needed a new recycling slogan to revamp and improve the program.

Secondly, community outreach was vital to improving recycling participation and reducing contamination. They formed a focus group and asked residents how to improve the recycling program. The focus group’s best idea was to incorporate pictures on education literature and materials. Terrence said this idea really helped their recycling program.

Lastly, he provided ways to maximize advertising. The city program organizers developed 30-second radio commercials, but radio stations sell advertising in one-minute blocks, so the city worked with a public water organization to share the cost of the advertising.

Another initiative the city of Phoenix rolled out was a bag reduction program. In three months, they found a 12 percent increase number of cloth bags used at grocery stores and an 8 percent decrease of plastic bags being used at grocery stores.

Lessons learned from a new campaign:
Know your customers
Identify key stakeholders
Develop a common vision for your organization
Be cost consciousness

Terrence’s parting words on recycling: It’s more expensive, but it legitimizes what you do.