Kermit the Frog once said, “It ain’t easy being green.” But maybe he was wrong – at least about being environmentally “green.”

A lot of people are like Kermit – they think it’s hard to be green. They say recycling is too time consuming and burdensome. In our busy society, separating the trash for recycling is just one more job that many say they don’t have the time to do.

At the same time, most people want to be green, even if they do not recycle regularly. They know it’s the “right” thing to do and they care about the environment. According to The Vandiver Group’s (TVG’s) research partner, GfK Roper, 83% of consumers consider environmental issues a serious problem. Yet only about half participate in environmentally sound habits:

- 65% try to save electricity at home

- 51% return bottles or cans

- 48% recycle newspapers

- 26% buy products made from or packaged in recycled materials

These findings are significant: they tell us that while the underlying motivation to reduce, reuse and recycle is there for most of the population, these same people are not necessarily taking the actions they say are important. Recent focus groups conducted by TVG support these conclusions, and offer further insight that the perceived difficulty of recycling is a major obstacle to changing behaviors.

TVG has worked with several clients involved in recycling projects, and we have found that one of the most effective approaches to overcoming misperceptions about recycling involves using word-of-mouth (WOM) techniques.

We recently implemented a word-of-mouth initiative for a global beverage producer wanting to increase recycling of glass and plastic. First, we partnered with a local solid waste management district to identify a city with a traditionally low recycling rate. The city that was selected had poor results with its curbside program its recycling rate hovered near 9%.

TVG performed research to identify the reasons for lower than normal recycling rates. We targeted Influentials, because they are the people in the community who share opinions with others, and they can be very powerful when activated with new information. We found there was a tremendous amount of misinformation that needed to be corrected before the WOM program could be put in place.

We listened, developed materials and held a series of meetings with community leaders. We educated them and activated them to drive the word-of-mouth campaign. We created materials that leaders could provide to people to better explain curbside recycling and the items that could be recycled. To fully engage the community we organized a recycling bin decorating contest for kids; these young participants became an important part of the campaign and shared their enthusiasm with family, friends, and neighbors.

The results? Collection data from the waste hauler shows that over an eight-month period our project increased recycling rates in the targeted area by 30%. WOM works!

To learn more about the public education and word-of-mouth projects we have worked on related to recycling, contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.