The city of angels recycles

So what we got hired to do, and what we're actually doing has evolved a bit. We started out canvassing restaurants and getting them to write letters to their senators, and we had a lot of fun with it! We met some super cool people, and got a lot of letters. We also got to work on a river cleanup, and help with the mayor's campaign a few weeks ago.

However, on our first few days of training, Tom and Samantha told us that the bill we are fighting is not as urgent as years past, so we have a unique opportunity to go on the offensive for once and propose a solution. They went on and on about how they always challenge the interns to come up with a project to leave behind, and sometimes they get something great, but usually they start too late and can't actually implement anything. We really took that to heart, because we didn't want to be useless, especially if this bill is overturned before we leave (which it has been).

So a few weeks ago, we started coming up with a plan. What if we developed a recycling education program that would include information about polystyrene recycling, and teach it to children? This is a totally different demographic than we have traditionally been targeting (the restaurants) but it's a valid one. The whole idea is to be able to put another arrow in the quiver, so we can go to the politicians and say, "Hey, we have all these restaurants that have spoken out about the issue, and we have educated X,000 children about recycling."

During our brainstorming session, we stumbled upon a really incredible opportunity. Our lobbying firm loaned us out to Friends of the LA River (FoLAR), a nonprofit that is all about helping restore the LA River to it's former glory. We helped with preparations for the annual river cleanup, and as we were working on that, we found out that they do field trips where they bring kids to the LA River and teach them about the ecosystem and how they are connected to the river. It seemed perfect, because we want to teach kids about recycling, and that they can help keep the ocean and rivers clean by properly disposing of their garbage. We asked if they would be willing to let us do a short presentation at their field trips, and they were really excited about it!

At the river cleanup, we talked to Sam and Tom and asked them if we could present an idea to them, and they agreed, so we worked on a presentation for the next few days, doing research and developing a rough idea for our lesson plan. About a week and half ago, we presented the idea to Tom and Sam, and they were absolutely blown away. We had answers to all of their questions, and they loved what we came up with and gave us the go ahead to get started.

We went to several of the presentations that Shelly does with the classes to get a feel for what she teaches them, and got great ideas for how we could connect our recycling lesson. In our research, we found that kids who understand that they are responsible for the consequences of their actions have stronger pro-environmental attitudes, and kids who are taught about how to recycle are 2-3 times more likely to do it for life. We thought that was pretty cool, and we decided that kids would learn better through action.

We developed several activities and tailored our messaging to those activities in order to allow the kids to learn in a hands-on manner. This week, on Thursday and Friday we actually got to try out our presentation and it went so well! We started by talking about the river and the watershed and asking the kids what they knew about recycling, and then we showed them items that are recyclable or non-recyclable and they had to tell us which category it went in. Then we had them write down all they had learned on a giant plastic poncho.

After that, we played a recycling relay, where they were split into teams, and they had to run to a pile of garbage and sort three pieces into either the garbage can or the recycling bin and then run back and tag their teammate. If they put it in the wrong bin, we made them do 5 jumping jacks before they could put it in the right bin. The kids had so much fun with this activity because when they finished, we had them ask questions about what they got wrong, and they all got to look at the different materials and hold them in their hands. It was fun to see kids get excited about recycling! (Let's be honest, isn't this the perfect job for me?)

After the relay was over, we gave all the kids cups of water, and David and Ryan put on the ponchos from earlier and the kids had to chase them and 'wash' the things they wrote on the plastic off. We had them write in wet-erase markers, so it was really easy for the ponchos to get clean. The whole point of that activity was for the kids to remember that their recycled plastics need to be rinsed before they are recycled. The kids loved that they got to basically have a water fight, and it was cool to see them start strategizing about how to best get the marker off the ponchos. After they were done, we related that strategy to the concept of a big group moving toward social change rather than a single person. They learned that if they all work together to recycle, they will make a bigger difference collectively. They all said that they were excited about recycling when we were done.

On Thursday, we got an email from our boss that he wanted us to present our idea to the top crisis management person at Edelman the next day, as well as our Bradley PR director who was in town for a few days. It was perfect timing, because we had just finished the first field trip and we knew what to expect for the second one, so we decided to shoot some video to show them what we had been up to. Later that night I went through and roughly cut the video together to show each of our activities, and we all went through and updated the presentation. I'm working on making the video into a training video for future interns to use, so when I'm finished with it I'll definitely post it.

On Friday, we did one more field trip and then went over to Edelman and presented. It went awesome! Deborah (The crisis management lady) had some excellent insight for us, and some awesome constructive criticism for our presentation which was really helpful, and she absolutely loved our idea. Tom had no idea that we were going to make the video and actually start presenting, and he LOVED it. He kept saying over and over again that we are the best group of interns they have ever had (and it's only been a month!).

The cool thing is that now, we don't have to canvass restaurants anymore, we are mainly going to focus on developing this curriculum and market it to potential partner organizations. It's so cool because we've essentially turned this grassroots PR internship into a full-blown campaign internship. I am so excited about this! It's so rewarding to see your hard work pay off, and get some recognition. I am confident that this will definitely set us apart, and give us some great work product to include in our portfolios. I'm so excited to see where this takes all of us!

Why I work here

So here I am in Los Angeles, California. I live for free in a sweet apartment that's furnished with everything I need, and I drive a rental car and don't even have to pay for gas. I get $75 every week for food, and I don't even have to pay for parking. Plus, I get a paycheck. Honestly, I'm living in the lap of luxury.. it's seems almost ridiculous to me, but I am so grateful for it, because it means that I can pay for my last year of school and everything else! Most PR internships aren't paid, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Plus, it's giving me such a great opportunity to network and hopefully will help me in 6 months or so when I'm looking for a real adult job. That's weird to think about.

Anyway, I have been here for a month now! There are four of us (Me, David Lake, Lindsay Bragg and Ryan Gray) working on this internship. And it has been crazy- but in a good way. We spent our first week or so learning everything we could possibly want to know about recycling, grassroots campaigning, and our client.

Basically, we work directly for Edelman Public Relations. Our client account is Kindel Gagan, a grassroots lobbying firm employed by the American Chemistry Council. The ACC has several members, including DART and the Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group (the people who make takeout containers and foodservice materials). It's pretty confusing, but I'll explain.

For the past eight years or so, there have been proposed bans on different types of plastics. The one that is the most common, is a ban on Polystyrene foam (#6 plastic). Although there are many types of plastic found in the rivers and ocean, Polystyrene has become the scapegoat- a symbol of modern consumerism and a target for environmentalists. These bans look positive, because their goal is to eliminate marine debris in the ocean. However, it's more like putting a band-aid on a broken leg than anything. The only thing these bans really do, is cause more expensive garbage to end up in the river. There aren't any materials that we know of, that will decompose in salt water, so there's really no best option for takeout containers. Many restaurants use foam because it is cheap, and simply put, it is the best material for the job. Foam is the only product that keeps cold food cold, and hot food hot for more than 5 minutes.

Cue the interns. We were hired to raise the voices of restaurant owners by helping them write letters to their senators asking them not to support the bans on plastics. Our main goal, is to discredit bans as a policy tool and show that they really don't provide a solution. Often, politicians sponsor these types of bans, because their constituency wants them to show that they are pro-environmental, and proposing a ban looks great on paper. In reality, bans don't actually work so our mission is to prove that to the governing body.