La Hormiga Verde as a Case of Social Marketing to Improve the Quality of Life Through Recycling Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

Abstract

La Hormiga Verde is a private company focused on applying social marketing to address an environmental problem—the processing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). As the main objective of its activity, the company has the goal of explaining to young people that consumer electronic products can be transformed in the context of a circular economy. The reuse of WEEE can have a significant effect on the environment, and therefore on substantially improving people’s quality of life. This case is significant because the company has put social marketing as the basis of its business model, and this is supported by an action—holding a contest to recycle e-waste. Through collaboration with all types of organizations, mainly educational institutions, the contest is the main entry point for the raw materials and the company’s fundamental communicative action. As a result, La Hormiga Verde is a sustainable company that contributes to quality of life since it encourages the recycling of WEEE. In conclusion, this initiative brings with it a global dimension to Extremadura (Spain) in relation to improving the effects of WEEE recycling on a rural region’s quality of life.

Teaching Notes

• 1. How can WEEE affect the quality of life? What can be the solutions to the impact of WEEE on the quality of life?

WEEE poses a threat to the quality of life from a health and environmental point of view, since electronic and electrical devices contain polluting materials such as heavy metals (cadmium, lead, mercury, …) and non-degradable plastics that are harmful to health and the planet. The reuse of these metals represents an economic and resource savings with the reduction of their environmental and health impact.

Electronic waste also poses a health risk since, once nature is contaminated, this can lead to DNA damage and diseases such as cancer.

Given the impact of WEEE on the quality of life, it is possible to act in different areas:

• Recycle: Any solution starts with the awareness of recycling. It is essential to make society see more the seriousness of the consequences of the negative impact that electronic waste has on the environment, and therefore on the quality of life. Thus, promotion of awareness and education in this area are fundamental in all age groups, but fundamentally in young people.

• Renovate: The recycling of these materials is expensive and difficult, so another solution is to reduce the consumption of this type of devices. It is true that electronic devices have become essential in our lives, but changing or renewing them should respond to criteria of usefulness, not aesthetics or whim. That is, we must renew technological equipment only when necessary, thus extending the useful life of the devices already available in homes.

• Reuse. When it is necessary to purchase a new device, the old one can be taken to companies or organizations that can reuse it. There they will repair and re-sell the device, extending its usefulness. In addition, in this way one can contribute to helping less-favoured social groups.

Therefore, the main solutions can be presented under the premise of the three “Rs”: “Recycle”, “Reuse”, and “Renew” (only when necessary).

• 2. What are the key aspects for solving the WEEE problem and planning a social marketing strategy that helps to improve the quality of life?

This problem can be understood and therefore solutions to it undertaken, emphasizing different aspects or points of view.

Emphasis on Education

The need to integrate environmental education in the school curriculum or in the Educational Centre Project (training the teacher trainers). In the educational field, the importance is recognized of training pupils in environmental issues to allow the local and global environment to be improved. This is stated in Goal 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Objective on Education, which addresses the need to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

Environmental education is a cross-cutting content in the majority of teaching curricula at the different educational levels. Therefore, throughout pupils’ academic stage, it is essential to include competencies related to proactive behaviour for the protection of the environment and which will improve the quality of life. This would contribute to internalizing respectful and sustainable behaviour towards the environment.

As part of education, small daily gestures respectful to the environment should be encouraged. Reflection on individual actions that can make a difference is fundamental, such as: completely unplugging electronic devices when not at home, extending the useful life of electronic devices, searching the second-hand market…

Emphasis on the Geographic Scope of the Problem

This is about transmitting the need to recycle in local environments to help minimize the global impact. Local authorities should do their bit by promoting recycling in proximity, as La Hormiga Verde does from the private sector.

With regard to this aspect, the European Union, in its Directive 2008/98/EC about waste, establishes that, in the European territory, waste must be disposed of as close as possible to the place in which it is produced (principle of proximity). The self-sufficiency of a territory in terms of recycling reduces economic costs and avoids unnecessary transport of materials.

Emphasis on Awareness

Much of society is unaware that, behind everyday objects such as a computer or mobile phone, there are highly polluting materials such as mercury, lead, or cadmium. It is necessary to make society aware of the impact of these materials not only on the environment, but also on health since prolonged exposure to these elements is highly damaging.

It would be appropriate to encourage debates and reflection through questions such as:

Did you know that …?⁷

• A refrigerator whose components are poorly recycled emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that are equivalent to the emissions of a car over 15,000 kilometres.

• A nickel-cadmium battery used in a mobile phone can pollute 50,000 litres of water.

It is also necessary to raise awareness in industry, given its important role in recycling electronic devices. It is necessary to encourage companies to conduct the controlled substitution of these materials, to promote policies that support the purchase of sustainable materials, to train human resources in energy and electronics savings, to favour contact with suppliers of sustainable materials, and to invest in the search for less polluting materials.

• 3. What does the strategy of La Hormiga Verde contribute to solving the WEEE problem?

La Hormiga Verde contributes fundamentally because it favours the recycling of polluting components from electronic and electrical devices. It recycles the toxic components of the devices, and contributes to the recovery of the parts and components that can be reused in the production of future devices or to repair others.

It is committed to solving the problem in two ways not previously considered in similar contexts: it makes a great effort to raise social awareness on the one hand in households (since it focuses on providing a service that allows waste to be collected almost directly from homes), and on the other in young people (thanks to the contest it carries out in schools). This awareness-raising work in predominantly rural contexts contributes to the proper destruction of polluting devices while following the principle of proximity.

The visibility it adds to the activity it carries out, on the one hand, by giving talks in schools and, on the other, through the communication channels it uses, promotes the transmission of sustainable, recycling habits in daily life. In addition, it offers information about polluting materials, thus increasing society’s awareness of the problem of e-waste.

Through its business model, the company contributes to creating social value. One reason is that it hires people with disabilities. Another is its environmental work, with reducing the impact of electronic waste being the central axis of its activity and a principle of action that governs its development (for example, optimizing its travel routes and recycling all the office furniture in its facilities).

• 4. Can the strategy of La Hormiga Verde be considered to be helping to improve the quality of life?

Its global strategy contributes to the improvement of local environments, with specific actions such as collecting WEEE at the point of origin (facilitating recycling in the most isolated areas) and employing people with disabilities, to whom it offers inclusive employment.

The work of raising awareness and sensitization in schools through the contest allows it to give visibility and diffusion to a problem that has a direct impact on people’s quality of life. In addition, it manages to attract young people by encouraging their participation with prizes that are donated to the school, and supporting values such as group work as opposed to individualism. Through the contest, awareness is created of the need for individual recycling and its contribution to achieving the global objective. This behaviour, extrapolated to the daily context of each participant, also encourages family awareness, making homes places that are better protected against and more concerned about WEEE contamination.

• 5. What can be done to improve communication actions in La Hormiga Verde?

Given the initial launching situation in which the company finds itself, improvement of its social communication plan should be consolidated. It should invest gradually and in coordination with its growth, until it is able to implement a professional plan of proper communication (which currently does not exist) that is solidly rooted in its social marketing strategy.

This path could begin with greater dedication to communication activities by the company’s staff, since currently such dedication is very limited.

Likewise, it would be convenient to review the platforms and social media used in order to verify that they are relevant and adapted to the target public.

Professionalizing these activities should lead to content that is better prepared and of greater interest to the company’s public. It would be pertinent to highlight and transmit its differentiating values (commitment to people who have a disability, being a certified entity, collecting at the point of origin…) since its current communications are eminently informative and lack interaction, which is not very motivating for its public to also move into action.

Subsequently, it would be convenient to invest in expanding the scope of communications through planned and paid communication actions on the platforms chosen (especially the online platforms). Traditional communications media are currently not a priority for the organization, so that promoting the online dissemination and reach would seem to be a strategy more in line with the reality of the company, as long as it is done in a planned way.

However, beyond such actions of online communications, those in charge of La Hormiga Verde could promote environmental education in a way that is more aligned with its business objectives and marketing strategy. This could be done through the talks already carried out in schools (which should be reinforced), and in using public relations (as a planned form of communication) in their contacts with suppliers, customers, and the media so as to spread a message based on the organization’s social and environmental values.

Regardless of which platform or medium is used, the promotion of actions carried out in favour of recycling and environmental education should be based on spreading messages with a marked social content, in which respect for the environment and the use of sustainable materials constitute the fundamental pillar.

All this must be accompanied by the advice of communications professionals, and put into practice gradually and proportional to the company’s business growth.

• 6. What are the keys to the success of the social marketing strategy of La Hormiga Verde?

The key aspects that make La Hormiga Verde a unique company and that have provided the keys to its success, thus contributing to improving people’s quality of life and reducing the waste’s environmental impact, can be specified as the following:

• The school contest. The company’s main tool and showcase is the contest carried out in collaboration with regional public administrations. This undoubtedly offers the company recognition among a young public and their families, which is very important for WEEE recycling. Involving and educating young people and households gives it a differential value compared with its competitors, in addition to positioning it more clearly as a benchmark in the sector at a regional level.

• The fact of being a Special Employment Centre makes La Hormiga Verde an organization concerned with the integration of people with some mental disability in the ordinary job market. This gives it added value that other companies in its sector do not have.

• The collection of electronic waste in institutions and organizations. The agreements with numerous businesses and institutions allows it to recycle large quantities of WEEE from which it subsequently obtains an economic benefit, and allows value to be created for the company in both economic and social terms, the latter because of providing society with strategies to improve its quality of life.

• Collection at the point of origin. The proximity to rural environments and its location in an area of marked geographical dispersion as is the case for the region of Extremadura (Spain) confers on the company full integration with the society in which it is inserted, and allows it to detect almost immediately deficiencies and possible market niches.

• Raising young people’s awareness. The involvement of young people in the problem of e-waste is essential for the future evolution of the problem.

• The agreements with institutions and businesses also contribute not only to the company’s own expansion but also to sensitizing the business fabric which is a major generator of e-waste. The establishment in many businesses and institutions of recycling protocols that include waste collection is a success for La Hormiga Verde.

In this way, La Hormiga Verde contributes to improving the quality of life of the society in which it carries out its activity since it facilitates recycling and offers information and education about this topic. In particular, it strengthens the quality of life of local rural environments in which WEEE is also a problem. It spreads values of respect for the environment and sustainability, while also promoting other values including the integration of people with disabilities and group work.