Solid Waste Management in a Mexican University Using a Community- Based Social Marketing Approach

Waste separation and recycling programs in higher education institutions requires an approach that reach people in different ways. Social marketing approach has proved to be effective in helping reach the desired change for very different initiatives. In this paper is presented a sixteen month experience of a paper and cardboard separation program at the Ensenada Campus of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC). Although the support from the University authorities is important, through different experiences it was found that in UABC the programs that work better are the ones that do not depend on the work of personnel but on the participation of students and academic staff. To gain this participation the strategies used in social marketing were used. To date through UABC ́s paper and cardboard program the institution has diverted more than six tons of this type of waste from the main waste stream. Based on the evaluation of the program and on the increasing community response, it can be said that the social marketing strategies used in this program were successful.