NRC Congress & Expo: Organizations Launch Effort to Re-Brand Recycling

NRC partners with U.S. EPA, food and beverage industry, to provide unified recycling message.

Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC), used the Oct. 23 plenary session at the NRC’s 25th Annual Congress & Exposition to present attendees with information on the organization’s new effort to rejuvenate recycling at the consumer level.

           

From 1990 to 1995, Krebs said the national recycling rate increased 10 percentage points. However, from 1995 to 2005, the recycling rate only saw a gain of five percentage points. She blamed the decline in recycling rate gains in part on the failure to educate consumers on the importance of recycling.

           

Krebs identified consumers as the “missing piece” in the recycling puzzle. “Recycling is no longer top-of-mind for consumers,” she said, noting that the current marketing messages involving recycling are insufficient to motivate consumers to recycle because they fail to convey the importance of recycling.

           

Additionally, the recycling brand, Krebs said, lacks an iconic campaign to inspire consumer action. She cited successful advertising campaigns such as the Ad Council’s “You Can Learn a lot from a Dummy” campaign to promote seat belt use and its campaign featuring Smokey the Bear urging wildfire prevention. Krebs said recycling needs to adopt such large scale communication outreach and education programs, presenting an updated message “to inspire old customers and invite new ones.” 

 

Krebs then introduced what she described as a “historic partnership that will breathe new life into recycling.”

           

Founding partners include the NRC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the American Beverage Association/Food Products Association and the International Bottled Water Association  Their goal, according to a press release issued by the NRC, is to “reignite American consumers’ interest in recycling by providing clear, consistent information on what, how and why to recycle.”

           

Krebs said, “Although many private and public sector organizations communicate with consumers about recycling now, sometimes consumers get mixed messages about how and what to recycle. This new campaign will coordinate those independent activities, combine financial resources and leverage the vast marketing power of all the campaign’s partners to encourage consumers and private companies to recycle more.”

           

Krebs added, “For decades, organizations have used a variety of recycling icons, standards and advertising campaigns to stimulate consumer and corporate recycling. Many of these campaigns were effective in creating awareness about recycling. However, our current research shows that Americans have lost their sense of urgency about recycling. They aren’t always sure about how and what to recycle. This campaign will remind Americans why recycling is as important as ever and take our nation’s recycling participation to the next level.”

           

According to the EPA, the nation’s recycling rate for 2005 was up 2.5 million tons from 2004 to nearly 79 million tons, or 32 percent.

           

Among the partnership’s early tasks is to develop and distribute consumer friendly recycling icons, like the chasing arrows symbol, and accurate and standardized recycling terminology for use in product advertising and labeling.

           

At a press conference to provide further information on the partnership following the plenary session, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said, “President Bush and EPA believe that environmental responsibility is everyone’s responsibility.” He added, “By restarting the nation’s recycling engine, EPA and our partners are transforming our throw-away culture into a recycling culture.”

           

The EPA has contributed a grant of $25,000 to the NRC to assist with the partnership’s efforts, Johnson said.

           

Also speaking at the press conference, Joe Gilliam, president of the Northwest Grocery Association, an organization for grocery wholesales and retailers, said the partnership is “breaking new ground together,” and that no one organization involved in the partnership is being “territorial.”

           

Prior to launching the ad campaign, the partnership will conduct a research phase that is expected to take six months, Krebs said. 

           

The NRC’s 25th Annual Congress & Expo was Oct. 22-25 at the Atlanta World Congress Center.