Give Your Food Scraps New Life

Put Food Scraps in the Organics Cart
Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority

Issue

SB 1383 is a California law that requires all municipalities that provide solid waste collection services to provide organic waste collection services too. The goal of the legislation is to reduce landfilled organic waste, a major contributor to climate change. To support the region’s compliance efforts, Action Research aimed to develop a behavior change campaign to help residents overcome knowledge, perception, and convenience barriers to participating in curbside collection of food scraps.

Solution

Using information gathered from a literature review and a mail survey of residents, we developed a community-based social marketing (CBSM) program to encourage residents to place their kitchen food scraps in the curbside organics bin. The campaign highlighted the benefits of turning food scraps into beneficial compost products. To address barriers, the campaign included informational flyers, customized kitchen pails, and letters highlighting community norms. The materials were delivered in English and Spanish to increase the program’s reach. We also created a billboard to enhance awareness of the program.

Impact

By crafting materials that leveraged social norms and addressed barriers to participation, we increased participation in the curbside organics collection program by 22%. Instead of going to landfills and contributing to climate change through methane emissions, this organic waste will now be turned into beneficial products like compost that can be used throughout the community. We are thrilled that Salinas residents now have the knowledge and resources to fight climate change by reducing landfill waste!