Trash Ineffective Appeals to Recycle

Consumers are more likely to do what they understand how to do and agree it is worth doing. This applies whether we want the consumer to redecorate her house or to recycle her trash.
     But the appeal to the “how to do it” works differently than the appeal to the “why to do it.” Researchers at University of Calgary and University of British Columbia explored how to increase the rate of recycling. The problem has been that, although a great many people in a range of developed countries are saying they want to take increasingly decisive actions to sustain the environment, they’re not following through. Comedian Sean Lock has quipped that limiting yourself to recycling your jam jars feels about as helpful as turning up at the aftermath of a hurricane with dustpan and brush.
     Researchers at Suffolk University in the U.S. and York University in Canada say that consumers justify their wasteful consumption on the basis of needing to buy what is available, and what is available too often uses wasteful packaging or makes reuse of the product difficult.
     The Calgary/British Columbia researchers tried out two sorts of arguments with citizens:

• Loss-framed, like “If you don’t recycle, we could run out of places to put our piles of trash.”
• Gain-framed, like “If you recycle, we’ll be better able to save trees and reduce pollution from manufacturing.”

     The researchers paired each of these with either concrete “how to recycle” instructions or with more abstract “why we’re telling you about recycling” information. Both the how and the why influence consumers. But is one type of pairing better than another?
     Yes.
     The researchers found that the loss-framed arguments were most effective with the “how to” instructions and the gain-framed arguments were most effective with the “why we’re telling you” information. Effectiveness measures included the volume of material and the variety of materials recycled.
     The improved power of these proper pairings wasn’t a flash in the dustpan, either. It persisted for the six months that the researchers tracked results.
     The power of the loss/instructions pairing was even greater if the researchers talked about short-term results. On the other hand, the power of the gain/information pairing was even greater if the focus was on the longer-term.
     When you want to influence shoppers, these trios of loss/instructions/soon and gain/information/future should work not only with the recycling, but also with the redecorating and other retail offerings.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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See Through Anti-Waste Consumers
Know How Customers Dispose of Products