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Litter CampaignCampaign Background and PurposeLitter hurts. Every year in Washington State, over 16 million pounds of "stuff" are tossed and blown onto interstate, state and county roads. Another 6 million pounds are tossed in parks and recreation areas. Programs funded through the Department of Ecology (Ecology) spend over $4 million dollars each year, but staff estimate that only 25 - 35% gets picked up. Litter creates an eyesore for motorists, harms wildlife and their habitats, and is a potential hazard for motorists who may be struck by anything from a lit cigarette to an empty bottle of beer, even a bottle of "trucker's pee." Many of us (about 25%) would never consider littering. Some of us (about 25%) litter most of the time. Almost half of us litter occasionally, but can be persuaded not to. With the help of a team of consultants, Ecology has developed a prevention strategy to help reduce intentional littering on roadways. It is designed to reach a broad audience to raise and maintain awareness, and to reach targeted audiences contributing to a majority of the problem. It relies heavily on the partnership and involvement of state agencies, local governments and (litter) tax-paying businesses. It plans for media sponsorships and includes a system to measure campaign outcomes. It re-institutes a toll-free number to send the message that littering is not accepted in Washington and that people care enough about litter to report it. It includes a short-term plan to raise awareness, and requires a long-term commitment for behavior change. back to top Target Audiences There are two major audiences for the campaign: litterers and non-litterers. Target audiences for littering include the five segments creating the majority of intentional litter on roadways: motorists or passengers who toss cigarette butts, alcoholic beverage containers, food wrappers and other beverage containers out the window and those who drive pickup trucks and are not properly covering or securing their loads and not cleaning out the back of their pickup trucks prior to driving on roadways. Campaign messages will also be aimed at those in the general public who are non-litterers traveling on Washington State roadways. back to top Objectives Campaign strategies have been designed to support three separate objectives: (1) a short-term objective to create awareness that there are significant fines associated with littering and that there is a toll-free number that can be used for reporting littering; (2) a long-term objective to make litterers believe their littering will be noticed and they could be caught; and (3) a long-term objective to influence litterers to change their behaviors: to dispose of litter properly, cover and secure pickup truck loads and clean out the back of trucks prior to driving on roadways. Strategies To create awareness, activities will focus on major promotional channels used to spread the word that there are significant fines for littering and that there ia a toll-free number for reporting littering. Channels include roadway signage, advertising, publicity, special events, and messaging on materials such as litterbags, posters, as well as reminders on state agency materials. To alter beliefs that littering isn't noticed and that people don't care, additional strategies will need to be implemented, including letters to litterers (based on hotline calls); law enforcement officials asking people during designated litter awareness periods if they have a litterbag and reminding citizens that it's the law; ongoing publicity featuring stories of people who get caught littering; and window decals, signs and bumper stickers as frequent, constant reminders on the road. back to top Evaluation A baseline and follow-up surveys of Washington State residents was conducted to measure (1) awareness of stiff fines associated with littering and (2) awareness of the toll-free number to report littering. In addition, a repetition of the 1999 litter survey will be used to measure changes in targeted categories of roadway litter. Several additional important measures have been implemented including quantifiable reporting on: reach and frequency data from media; sponsorship and in-kind contributions; press coverage; and participation levels of other state agencies and local governments. Several of these measures can be combined with other campaign data (i.e. number of signs and calls to the hotline) to create overall numbers of campaign "impressions" with target audiences. back to top To find out about current campaign successes and information on the interim measures, click Campaign Successes (November 2002). |
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
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