How Our "Get Past Plastic" Campaign Helped Support Environmental Legislation in NJ

Background

In 2022, the State of New Jersey set out to tackle the growing issue of plastic pollution by enacting legislation to ban several single-use plastic products. The legislation would be one of the most comprehensive bans on single-use paper and plastic bags across the entire United States, intended to help reduce plastic, lessen landfill volume and reduce litter.

Solution

To educate and inform as many residents as possible, we developed and launched an educational campaign on the Recycle Coach mobile app.

This campaign had two goals: to educate residents on why single-use plastic bags, cutlery, and straws would no longer be distributed across New Jersey, and to teach them about the specifics of the new legislation.

The campaign consisted of various media, including videos, infographics, monthly quiz questions focused on single-use plastics, blogs, and custom social media packages for municipalities and counties to spread the word to residents. Results  During the four months the Campaign was live, our educational media was viewed tens of thousands of times, including the Bag Up NJ' video by DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTorrette, as well as several infographics displaying information on the plastic and paper bag regulations. By the end of the campaign, well over 80% of users understood that they could no longer get certain single-use plastics in New Jersey, and 9,000 residents earned a digital badge for participating in a culminating quiz. Key Area Reductions:

• 93% of participants learned that you could not get a single-use plastic bag at grocery stores
• 88% of participants knew that polystyrene plates, cups, and cutlery would no longer be available
• 85% learned they could not recycle polystyrene in their program
• 82% learned that plastic shopping bags should not be placed in regular curbside recycling
• 67% stated the biggest challenge switching to reusable bags was forgetting them, while 21% of participants had no challenges

Key Takeaway

By using Recycle Coach for recycling education initiatives that go beyond curbside pick-up, New Jersey was able to effectively communicate information about this significant legislation.