Summary of insights from pondering MSP's current recycling/waste initiatives as a volunteer and lover of this park. After creating Fidna resources and finding relevant takeaways from other sources, below are also some strategic recommendations for your MSP team. I am happy to volunteer more time for this research as the team's efforts grow and as I learn more (:
Resources:
Fidna database with various relevant examples of recycling and waste to draw inspiration from:
Recycling sources from different perspectives: one, two, three, four, five
General Trends:
Non-profit partnerships via product labels and donation call-to-actions
Rewards and rebate programs
Percentage of purchase donations, signage at checkout, and receipt acknowledgements
Signage with calls-to-action via images, interactive arrows/decision trees, QR, and
Three Strategic Recommendations for Restuarant/Green Dining Initiative:
Establishing a resource bank of vendors for restaurants to support their green dining certification; anything linked here
Collecting a $% of successful vendor referrals to restaurants OR restaurant/individual/vendor referrals to the Green Restaurant Association
Dedicating the above funds to marketing campaigns, reusable giveaways, and green dining destination discounts. Using the park's open space for hands-on engagement via staff/volunteers or using community boards. Overall bringing awareness to individual actions through dialogue and more people to the green dining destinations.
Strategic marketing suggestion:
Wheel activity at events: an activity for youth to spin a wheel and guess an answer to a local recycling question
Madison Square Park water bottle partnership with Shake Shack MSP
Some form of partnership/collaboration with a marketing firm thinking outside of the box about engagement in public park spaces... limited/eliminating: QRs, long-form text, augmented reality with an external app download... something new and proven to be engaging... may be able to help with this in a few months but will be on the lookout for other firms.
Madison Square Park resources:
From MSP's press release + Travel + Leisure feature (posted 11/22/22)