Messaging Strategies About Reuse for Advocates

Aug 18

Throughout 2024, Upstream held a series of convenings for reuse advocates living in states and provinces where decision makers hold more conservative values and it may be more difficult to pass reuse policy. Together, they shared insights, ideas, and troubleshooting techniques around creative ways to advance reuse in their areas. One key theme was messaging—ways to talk about reuse across the aisle and various demographics in order to reach more skeptical audiences, or those simply unaware of reuse concepts. The talking points shared here could provide helpful conversation starters for anyone trying to engage their community.

Message One: It Starts With Local Strength

Reuse builds resilient communities that keep resources and wealth circulating locally and decouple it from a volatile global supply chain.
Reuse creates local jobs that are otherwise outsourced by purchasing disposables.
Communities have a right to decide for themselves how to address waste issues, which are very local and in many ways have local solutions.

Message Two: Leverage What Works in Your Community

Each state has pride in its unique attributes, and that can be leveraged to make the case for reuse.
It can be effective to talk about the impacts that plastic pollution has on tourism: trash on beaches and litter on streets has a tangible impact on visitation. Directly linking a potential net negative economic impact from plastic pollution can really stick with lawmakers.
Community tours of MRFs (municipal recycling facilities/transfer stations) offer a very direct way to illustrate to people that what you toss out does not go “away.”

Message Three: Reuse Saves Tax Payers & Local Governments Money

Much of what is tossed in a landfill represents valuable commodities, and when people make that connection they are driven to create a more circular system.
Solid waste management costs go to the local government and the taxpayer. The economics of waste management exemplifies socialized costs with privatized profits—in effect compelling residents to pay for someone else’s mess.

Message Four: Reuse Mitigates the Negative Health Impacts of Plastic

Even in conservative states, public health, children’s health, and reproductive health are often of deep concern to decision makers.
Endocrine disruption and reproductive issues due to how additives and compounds in plastics mimic estrogen, especially in young men, is an issue that resonates across the board.
In some areas, leveraging the health argument is becoming more of an inflection point for people than waste—people are thinking less about plastic pollution than how plastic is harming our health and our children’s health.

Message Five: Reuse is Good for Business

A major point of consideration is how the cost of plastic to municipalities harms the business community.
Leveraging the private sector to engage at the state level and encourage changes to the single-use system bolsters the image of a pro-business state. When businesses are on board, policymakers are usually on board.

Message Six: Reuse is Just Common Sense

Reuse is not new; it’s what we’ve always done. This is a message that can garner support in conservative states, because it represents the essence of conservation.
Across the political spectrum, there tends to be agreement that there is too much single-use plastic.
Tapping into the right messaging can bring everyone together on this bi-partisan issue.