Reference no: EM132258492
According to the information, answer the question below:
This Critical Process exercise is a case study for nonprofit public relations; it involves the process of persuading citizens to make a minor personal investment of time and energy for the good of the community.
As the new environmental coordinator for the make-believe city of Murphystown (pop. 100,000), your duty is to get the citizens to reduce, reuse, and recycle their household garbage. More than six months ago, a citywide curbside recycling program went into effect. Each household received plastic bins for separating its paper, metal, glass, and plastic products. Pickup is every two weeks, on the same day as weekly garbage collections. But many citizens of Murphystown either are not recycling or are forgetting to put out their recycling bins on time and are then later overloading the containers. Others are incorrectly sorting their recyclables, while still others are putting non-recyclable waste into their bins. Moreover, few citizens are composting yard waste such as leaves and grass clippings, and many are still putting those items into their garbage cans, a practice that is now illegal. So after six months, the new recycling program has been deemed a failure, and you have been hired with the unenviable task of fixing the situation. A survey indicates that Murphystowners are accustomed to a throwaway convenience culture, and they think recycling and composting are too time-consuming, with little benefit for them.
The recycling program needs to be a success. The program will extend the life of the city’s landfill from twenty to seventy years, and it will also provide (through the sale of bulk recycled garbage) an important revenue source for the operation of the city’s environmental management system. Your job success depends on your ability to turn the program around. The city’s mayor has privately demanded that you dramatically improve the citizen participation rate in the program in a year, or you’ll be fired.
What is your Public Relations strategy? Describe and discuss your plan. Use concepts, examples, and ideas from the textbook chapter. Consider the following: How will you frame your strategies and messages to do this? How will you get all residents of the entire city of Murphystown to make a personal investment in energy and time for a long-term plan in which they may not see immediate tangible benefits? How do you change people's mind about the importance of recycling?