Taylor Galavotti - My Speech - Assignment #16

As many of you know, in May of 2019, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government released a statement saying Lexington would no longer recycle paper. According to Nancy Albright, Lexington’s Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works, “Outlets for paper products are accepting only limited amounts due to an overabundance of material in domestic markets...The Recycle Center does not have the space to store the paper long-term, or in large quantities,” thus Lexington doesn’t have the physical means to recycle paper effectively to where it would be used again. Our currently strained relationship with China definitely doesn’t help the situation, as China is the place that most, if not all, of our recycled materials end up. Because their standards have increased for the quality of recycled materials, we are now unable to send our paper products. But it isn’t just Lexington. These negative relations have had consequences all across America. 

That said, fixing this problem isn’t as easy as electing a different president. The trade “war” with China has been going on since the 1970s when “an era of liberalization...was ushered in by Deng Xioaping,” catapulting China into economic prosperity. In the past 40 years, their GDP has quadrupled and in the next 10 years, they are expecting to become the top trading nation in the world. The United States has had many trade issues with China, whether it be their currency conversion to American dollars or the fact we have been at a $202 billion bilateral trade deficit with China for the past 15 years. That said, it’s erupting right now, so negotiations are only going to do so much, and recycling is not at the forefront of those discussions.

But, This issue with China is only highlighting our domestic problem with recycling. This ban on paper has brought efforts to save the planet through recycling to a near standstill. According to the Recycle Center, “25 to 30% of the material that comes to [the Center] is unwanted material.” Simply put, this means people don’t understand the necessary qualifications for something to be recycled, which is the root of our issue. Despite the barrage of Kentucky American Water posters detailing what is recyclable and what isn’t, people still don’t get it. Education needs to be the crux of any solution that we propose.

So, My solution has 3 parts: education, advertisement, and incentives. As I said previously, education must be the most important aspect of our solution. I commend Kentucky American Water and any other companies trying to make the country a little greener, but it’s not enough. I propose an inter-platform social media campaign. We can use Lexington as a guinea pig, making use of targeted ads for residents of the Lexington area, with short videos or interactive infographics to garner the attention of those scrolling. By working with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, we can put out accurate and easily understandable information about recycling and how best to do it. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, there are 7 easy steps to a successful social media campaign. Step 1: “Monitor the Conversations.” To relate this to recycling, we can do a city-wide poll in the newspaper or the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government social media pages. From there, we’ll have a baseline idea of what people need to learn and what they already know. Steps 2-6 detail how to find a positive “influencer” to be the face of your campaign. Lucky for us, Coach Cal and Mayor Gorton are recognizable names here in Lexington. Using their “celebrity” status, we can spread the message of informed recycling through these social media posts. Step 7 is simply “Reap the benefits” and if all goes to plan, we should. But that’s only phase 1. Now that people know how to recycle, how are we going to get them to actually do it?

That’s the 2nd and 3rd phases of my plan. Phase 2 is all about advertising. As mentioned previously, we can make use of targeted ads. By forming a standing committee within our local government to look at voting patterns throughout Lexington, we can tailor recycling advertisements to political ideologies. I know this sounds far out, but believe me, there’s science to back it up. According to Blair Kidwell, a graduate student at the University of Kentucky, advertisements are more successful towards liberal-leaning people if they feature an “individualizing moral foundation.” Examples of such moral foundations include ideas like compassion and fairness, so those advertisements would focus on central themes of “it’s the right thing to do” and “look out for the future of your neighbor.” The opposite goes for conservatives; a “binding moral foundation” is more successful. A “binding moral foundation” relates more to ideas of authority and purity, so we would focus the advertisement more on people with political power or keeping the Earth clean. Using this information, we can change the way we present the information, eventually resulting in a more effective advertisement. And even after all this, if they still don’t want to recycle, we’ll put money to it.

Ah yes. Money. Fixes just about everything doesn’t it? No, not really, but it might fix recycling. A theoretical system designed by Dr. Jill McCluskey will improve neighborhood recycling habits through a series of incentives. Her and two other scientists created a differential equation-based system to test the effects of a club-good as a reward for positive recycling habits. Free wi-fi and neighborhood dinners are both examples of a club-good. The fact that some members of the community would be missing out due to their poor recycling habits would encourage them to recycle, an added benefit of a club-good reward. The math-based theoretical system was a success. So, let’s put it into practice in Lexington. Again using Lexington as a guinea pig, we can establish this rewards-system in one of the neighborhoods around town, partnered with Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, to test the real-life results. If the in-practice results mirror that of the theoretical ones, then we can implement a similar system all across Lexington.

In turn, it would increase our proper recycling outputs, meaning the standards of our recycled materials have increased to where it might be on par with China’s new and improved standards. If this 3 phase plan is a success in Lexington, then it can be implemented in cities all across the United States, so we are able to export our recycled materials to China once again. 

Yes, I understand this isn’t going to solve climate change but if more people understand the importance of recycling even if it is through social media campaigns, ideological advertisements, and monetary incentives, we’ll have a greener planet. Thank you.