Activating and educating through campaigns
All of the proposed solutions and policies require the acceptance and active cooperation of the actors involved. To induce behavioral changes, campaigns can be very effective. Councils in Australia with educational campaigns on why and how to dispose of waste correctly had less waste on their coastlines when compared with councils without campaigns. Investments in campaigns led to larger reductions of waste than did investment in policies, like a plastic shopping bag ban. However, it is important to pay attention to the kind of instructions provided. Pushy requests work for consumers that already value recycling as important, while suggestive requests work better for people who find recycling less important.
So campaigns can be effective in promoting environmentally friendly behavior. But what makes a good campaign?
→ Educate. While the majority of the people are aware of the deleterious effects of the plastic waste problem, knowledge about the specific causes and impacts lacks. It is important for people to understand the problem, so they don’t feel like the problem is too complex or too much out of their control.
→ Involve. People need to have the feeling that their role matters, which makes them feel responsible. What is also important, is that the campaign does not ask too much effort. The action needs to be presented in such a way that the person feels like it is a relatively easy step to take but does have an important impact.
→ Incentive. It helps when the campaign points out that the individual will gain from changing their behavior. This can be done by providing an incentive or simply pointing out how the person might feel personal benefits after they take action.
→ Leave an impression. The posters on the left and the right show examples of how to catch people’s attention and make them remember the message of the campaign.