Recycling is one of the most important parts of waste management, as it aims to reduce waste in landfills by collecting, sorting and processing used items. Unfortunately, as a society, we’re not recycling enough to protect the environment, which is why we deal with problems like increased landfill waste, resource depletion and loss of biodiversity.
It is difficult to pinpoint who is truly responsible for the lack of recycling damaging materials like plastic. However, several industries are known to generate plastic like no other, such as oil and gas companies that might not prioritise recycling properly.
Companies, businesses, and multinationals have the responsibility to recycle and spread awareness on the matter so that both the brand and the customer make the effort. While recycling is still a complex system, bringing the matter to the public’s attention is essential, so let’s see how it’s done.
Understanding the advantages of recycling
There are many benefits to recycling, but it can develop three important pillars:
- Environment: recycling helps conserve natural resources, manages climate waste and saves energy;
- Economy: recycling accounts for numerous jobs, money in tax revenues and wages;
- Community: recycling has a positive local mark on society and also has an international impact on humans;
Recycling also stands on three essential steps:
- Collecting and processing recyclables and sending them to special facilities for sorting, cleaning and processing;
- Manufacturing products from recycled items that are reintroduced to the market;
- Selling recycled-content products and post-consumer content made from aluminium cans, carpeting, or egg cartons;
Companies can choose from a myriad of recycling methods, from Mil-tek balers and waste compactors that pack waste and reduce storage costs to adding more waste streams to an office to optimise waste management.
Spreading awareness from within
A business cannot inform people about recycling and similar serious matters if it doesn’t follow its implications. Entrepreneurs should assess an internal audit of the state of recycling in their building and test how much employees know about this practice.
Based on the data, leaders must work with their teams to develop a recycling strategy that can make the company a true competitor in the industry. The guidelines should be clear regarding what can be recycled in the company, and enough waste streams across the building are necessary to make the practice accessible.
Assessing progress in recycling and transforming it in numbers can help the brand grow in customer’s eyes so they gain trust in the company’s commitment to recycling.
Impacting communities
After being able to recycle in-house, organisations can start designing campaigns to spread awareness of the issue. Social media is a helpful tool in this direction, as it brings information close to the people by making it easy to understand. Showing people the quantifiable benefits of recycling is an efficient method for local municipalities, for example, that can contribute to recycling efforts.
The World Economic Forum shows how different countries approached spreading awareness by showing how companies qualified for plastics and carbon credits or approached behaviour change campaigns through which they could earn back their investment costs for recycling programs.
The idea behind impacting communities is for companies to create a recycling program and showcase how it helped the community evolve through proof and then social media posts. The more posts and information revealed, the more significant the project is.
Working on making recycling easier
Companies that prioritise recycling within their communities can collaborate with their local governments to make it more accessible. These partnerships benefit both parties in terms of brand image and offer real solutions to manage waste.
Strategic alliances can approach projects like providing more recycling bins within communities, working with waste management partners to ensure materials are properly recycled and processed, or encouraging digitalisation to reduce paper waste.
However, the most impactful plan would include proper communication. Multiple communication channels for locals to approach organisations and local facilities will help all actors involved become more knowledgeable about the matter and enhance transparency.
Crafting the perfect social media campaign
Social media has the power to move communities and address delicate subjects in an easily digestible way. Organisations like Greenpeace, Plastic Oceans, and Ocean We Unite create some of the most interesting social media campaigns on the plastic industry to help societies understand how much plastic affects the environment. It can be difficult to know how big the impact is on biodiversity when there is no direct impact on the consumer, but there’s no contest that the world is producing more plastic than ever.
Social media campaigns on recycling can increase audience engagement, create more collaboration opportunities, and support an important message, so here’s how to organise it:
- Understanding the audience. The campaign must follow the audience’s demographics, interests and behaviours;
- Creating engaging visual content. Photos and videos with before-and-after recycling, the impact of recycling and infographics are ideal;
- Educational content. Sharing how-to guides, informative articles and tips for people to recycle properly;
- Collaborating with influencers in local communities. This helps expand the target audience to younger generations who value recycling;
Can companies mitigate the challenges of recycling?
Spreading awareness on recycling is easier than doing it, but that’s because of potential challenges. Local services can be either expensive or inadequate, and the low market demand for recycled materials hinders progress in recycling.
At the same time, workers are exposed to risks when handling chemical or combustible materials. Employees work with powerful equipment and are exposed to machine guarding hazards, so they should be protected with proper equipment and training.
Final considerations
Talking about recycling is an effort that both companies and users should address. Recycling waste is important to minimise landfills and the negative impact on nature, but it’s not done properly and enough when compared to the amount of production. Therefore, organisations should train their employees to contribute to in-house recycling, approach diverse methods fitted to the company culture, and engage in social media campaigns that target customers and local governments.
