Think Yellow Population Mobilization Campaign

Think Yellow
Population Mobilization Campaign
ANA, Loureiro - Valorsul, S.A.
CONTACT
Contact name: Ana Loureiro
Organisation: Valorsul, Valorização e Tratamento de Resíduos Sólidos Urbanos da AML (Norte)
S.A.
Postal address: Plataforma Ribeirinha da CP, Estação de Mercadorias da Bobadela, 2696-801 São
João da Talha - Portugal.
Telephone: 00 351 219535900
Facsimile: 00 351 219535935
Email: [email protected]
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Think Yellow is the headline of the most recent strategy to motivate people that lives and works at
the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal) to separate their plastic bottles and use the yellow
container. More than a communication campaign, this is the strategy of Valorsul, the company
responsible for the treatment and recovery of Municipal Solid Waste in 5 municipalities, to improve
the recycling rates of plastic packages.
The plastic packages are the most difficult ones to collect – the weight is low, the volume is high
and they go to the yellow container, where people can also throw metal and composite packages.
The figures don’t lie – to reach the packaging waste directive of the EU (2011 objectives), Portugal
must collect 22, 5% of this flow material and the country still has a long way to go. To achieve the
recycling targets (not only for plastic, but for all packaging waste), there are many organisations
doing campaigns for recycling packages, like the Green Dot, schools, municipalities and NGO’s.
We found that we’re dealing with a specific problem that needs specific action, and that we had the
conditions to do it.
We defined a campaign in two stages. The first one was based on partnerships with well recognized
brands in the country, that had products commercialized in plastic bottles – we choose a water
brand (Água de Luso); a detergent brand (Skip) and a bath gel brand (Vasenol). With them, we
made a media campaign saying: “Think Yellow. Use the plastic and metal container.” With this
campaign we created awareness about the type of packages than can be sorted in the yellow
container. The media plan had TV, outdoors in the streets and public transports, press ads, internet,
and a special mailing.
In the second stage it was made the link with social responsibility, since it was communicated
“Think Yellow. Help the Environment. Help many people”. This was the slogan for a campaign that
compromises that for each 20 plastic bottles well sorted in the yellow container, Valorsul will
donate 0,025€ for social solidarity. The media plan was TV, info mail (to 690.000 postal boxes),
press ads, outdoors in the streets and public transports, internet and a special event.
Since the campaign is dedicated to a single package, it was possible to measure the result at the
sorting plant – results were not ready in time for this paper, but will be presented at the ISWA
World Congress 2007, in Amsterdam.
INTRODUCTION
In Portugal, the most part of the selective collection in done trough the sorting of packages in three
containers with different colours: green for glass, blue for paper and cardboard and yellow for
plastic, metal and composite packages. Every communication related to recycling of packages
should take this in line of account in the message development.
The plastic packages are the most difficult ones to collect – the weight is low, the volume is high
and they must be placed on the yellow container, where people can also put other kind of packages.
Plastic represents a specific target, since is the material that is more far away to achieve the EU
goals.
Recycling targets defined by the European Commission
Packaging
Waste
Glass
Paper/Cardboard
Plastic
Metal
Wood
Goal 2005
(Directive 94/62/CE)
15% for each flow
Goal 2011
(Directive 2004/12/CE)
60%
60%
22,5%
50%
15%
Valorsul, the multimunicipal system for processing and recovery the Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) from Lisbon (North), including the municipalities of Amadora, Lisbon, Loures, Odivelas
and Vila Franca de Xira, is the organisation responsible for the waste produced by 1.176.108
inhabitants – 15,04% of the waste produced in the country.
Since Valorsul is the biggest multimunicipal system in the country and because there are many
organisations doing campaigns for recycling packages, like the Green Dot, schools, municipalities
and NGO’s, we thought that we’re dealing with a specific problem that needs specific action, and
that we had the conditions to do it. This campaign, from our point of view, would complement all
the other campaigns, focusing on a specific problem.
The Integrated Management System of Valorsul, SA
In 1994, the multimunicipal system for processing and recovery the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
from Lisbon (North) was created, including the municipalities of Amadora, Lisbon, Loures and Vila
Franca de Xira. This Law Decree established that the multimunicipal system of Lisbon
Metropolitan Area (North) operation and management would be granted, to a public joint venture to
be created.
To Valorsul, SA, contracted to explore and manage a multimunicipal system, was given the mission
of promoting actions that contribute to sanitation and welfare of the population assuring, namely:
a) The processing of MSW adjusted to the true necessities of the municipalities, in what concerns
quantitative as well as qualitative features, in accordance with applicable national and
communitarian regulations;
b) The promotion of the necessary actions in order to implement a proper policy of MSW
management, namely in what regards its reduction and recovery;
c) Cost control, efficiently and rationally using the available means in their activities.
According to the national residue management politics, a maximization of the valorisation of
residues must be attained either energetically or through recycling. The guidelines given by the EU
through its 6th European Environmental Framework were based in the following principles: residue
production prevention, recovery of residues through separate collection, sorting and recycling,
energy recovery and, finally, a safe elimination of the produced residues.
Keeping this in mind, Valorsul has established an Integrated Management System to take care of
the MSW produced in its intervention area. This system consists of several operational facilities: a
Waste to Energy Plant; a Processing and Valorisation of Bottom-Ash Plant; a Biodegradable Waste
Processing Plant (ETVO); a Sorting Plant; a Collection Centre (EC); and a Sanitary Landfill (AS),
to operate as a system fuse.
THINK YELLOW?
Why are we telling people to think yellow? From our experience, the population still have many
doubts about which container to choose when they have a plastic package to recycle. We are
appealing to the colour of the container, giving examples of what to throw.
Communication - Stage 1
The campaign started with a special mailing, sent to all advertisers, asking if they were available to
have a partnership with Valorsul. This mailing was sent through the Association of Advertisers, to
give more credibility to the action.
Figure 1 – Mailing to Advertisers
After this first step, we defined partnerships with well recognized brands in the country, that had
products commercialized in plastic bottles – we choose a bath gel brand (Vasenol); a detergent
brand (Skip); and a water brand (Água de Luso). With them, we made a media campaign saying:
“Think Yellow. Use the plastic and metal container.” With this campaign we created awareness
about the type of packages than can be sorted in the yellow container, with our message dedicated
to plastic bottles – with this example we’re asking for packages that have more importance, and at
the same time we exclude plastic packages that can not be recycled. The media plan had TV,
outdoors in the streets and public transports, press ads and internet.
Figure 2 – Partnerships with well recognized brands
The agreement defined was that Valorsul would use the image of these well known brands and
change de label to “yellow”, with the same font and layout, to use in all advertisement supports. In
return, the brand would give Valorsul 5’ of time for a TV spot, that would be showed at the public
television (with 90% discount), just after their own TV spots. It was quite a simple idea – to show
people that the plastic package that they have just seen goes to the yellow container after being
used. This idea won a prize in Portugal, for the most creative media campaign.
The first stage of the communication campaign was made between January and April 2007.
Figure 3 – Outdoor on public transport
Figure 4 – Outdoor on subway station
Communication - Stage 2
The second stage started in May 2007, and it was made the link with social responsibility, since it
was communicated “Think Yellow. Help the Environment. Help many people”. This was the slogan
for a campaign that compromises that for each 20 plastic bottles well sorted in the yellow container,
Valorsul will donate 0,025€ for social solidarity. The media plan was TV, info mail (to 690.000
postal boxes), press ads, outdoors in the streets and public transports, internet and a special event.
Figure 5 – Mailing with the headline “Thank you for the tops. Now we
want the bottles”
The 20 bottles figure is, according to Valorsul waste characterization studies, the average number of
bottles that we need to have 1 kg. In this stage, we used only the PET image, since it would be the
most illustrative one, and we made the link to social patronage, associating it to toys, healthcare or
baby objects.
Figure 6 – Press Add
Figure 7 – Press Add
Figure 8 – Press Add
Figure 9 – Outdoor
Besides the traditional media, we made a special event in one of the biggest shopping centre in
Lisbon – the yellow week. This event was made between 1st and 8th of June, a week that includes
the World Environment Day (5th June). We were well located with giant plastic bottles, asking
people to give us their used plastic bottles for this period of time (most of them were water bottles).
People were invited before the event (public relations actions and a partnership with a free
newspaper distributed in public transports), and afterwards we informed, with the same criteria, the
number of bottles collected and the amount of money donated to a solidarity association. The event
was a success – we were able to donate 1.000€ for an Association with only one week collection of
plastic bottles.
THE BOTTLE TOPS WERE THE SECRET
With this campaign we tried to transfer a phenomenon that happened in Portugal with the collection
of bottle tops. The phenomenon, still going on all over the country, started with a simple idea - if
people could collect 1 ton of plastic tops, will be donated wheel chairs for people and associations
that doesn’t have money to buy it.
This idea started in a special campaign in the South of Portugal, and rapidly, without any
advertising campaign, was all over the country. Waste companies like Valorsul were pressured to
receive the plastic tops, sell them and give the money for those social purposes. We started to
receive these plastic tops from schools, police, courts of law, municipalities, fireman stations and
many other entities – the society pressured waste companies so much, that we had to define specific
procedures with the Green Dot to send this kind of material to recycling.
Since November 2005 to June 2007, Valorsul sent 135.740 ton of plastic tops for recycling, and this
means 84.250, 86€ for social patronage.
Socially is a very innovative and profitable campaign, but when we asked for the bottles, people
simply didn’t know what they did to it – they were selecting plastic tops and they were forgetting
the bottles! Having this as an example, Valorsul tried to develop a campaign that is correct from a
sustainable point of view – environmental, social and economical aspects must be considered.
EVALUATION
This campaign has three different approaches of evaluation. The first one is the media evaluation,
where we have indicators of efficiency of each media used versus investment made. The second
indicator comes from the contacts trough low cost telephone lines, information requests and from
the collection system. The third indicator, and for us the most important one, is the amount of
plastic bottles sent to recycling.
At this stage, we are still compiling information that will be presented at the ISWA World Congress
2007, in Amsterdam.
CONCLUSION
The Think Yellow campaign tries to reach three main objectives related to sustainable strategy, with
three kinds of goals. The environmental goal is to achieve the EU Directive and recycle as much
plastic bottles as possible that are placed into the market, giving them the best treatment; the social
goal is to achieve as much money as possible to give to social patronage; the economical objective
is also to achieve as much money as possible, to improve the collection service for the population
(since that we will have more money available for investment).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank all the colleagues in Valorsul from distinguished areas of knowledge
that made the Think Yellow campaign possible, as well as the advertisement agencies involved
(Lowe and Brand Connection) and the partners who believed on our ideas (brands Luso, Skip and
Vasenol).
REFERENCES
94/62/CE Directive (20.12.1994), Official Journal of the European Union.
2004/12/CE Directive (18.02.2004), Official Journal of the European Union.