This is the seventh post in a series on improving the environmental sustainability of marketing communications. Previously: Measurement (in two parts); A model; Rethink; Reduce; Reuse. Today: Recycle.
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After you rethink your marketing communications program to make it more environmentally responsible, and after you reduce and reuse your tools, whatever’s left must be recycled. Ironically, though recycling sits toward the bottom of the traditional waste hierarchy, it’s the practice most commonly associated with environmental friendliness. I’d imagine it should come easiest in greening your marcom. In fact, just writing this post feels like stating the obvious, so I’ll keep it short.
Of the abundant definitions of recycling, I like the EPA definition:
“Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. Recycling includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials such as fibers, manufacturing raw materials into new products, and purchasing recycled products.”
In other words, waste from some products becomes food, or input, for others.
The conceptual line between reuse — by repurposing or down-cycling — and recycling can be thin, and “recycling” seems to often be used incorrectly to indicate “reuse”. Recycling entails re-processing into raw materials, or “change [of] the physical properties of the material”.
What really matters is that you do recycle the tangible marketing communications tools you end up using post the previous phases in the model.
Recycling is typically managed by municipalities, so the success of your marcom recycling efforts may depend on your business location and what services are available. In Portland, Oregon, the regional government Metro and the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability regulate and manage the Recycle at Work and other related recycling programs. What about your municipality?
If you did your job well in the Rethink, Reduce, and Reuse phases, Recycle should be almost automatic: recycle whatever physical objects you use in your marketing communications. Doesn’t get any more no-brainer than that.
I still want to know, What do you think?
Next week: Replenish.
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Image credits: B Tal and Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
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