The Project: Developed and executed a geotargeted digital display campaign across Hamilton and Niagara Region to educate residents on medical waste exclusions in residential recycling, addressing a spike in IV bags and medical tubing entering the recycling stream.
Key Achievement: Campaign performance prompted expansion into the Ottawa area, broadening the program's reach to a third major Ontario market.
Read my report below ↓
Medical Waste Awareness Campaign Report
Background
During an early 2026 visit to Waste Mangement’s Dumfries Post-Collection Facility, the contractor reported a sustained increase in IV bags and medical tubing entering the recycling stream. These materials require manual removal for worker safety and equipment functionality, causing operational disruptions and production line downtime.
Research and input from Circular Material’s Operations team confirmed that IV bags and medical tubing currently have no known stewardship program. Our Promotion &Education team developed targeted messaging to direct residents toward appropriate community collection and disposal methods.
Campaign Messaging
Digital display ads directed users to the Hamilton and Niagara Region landing pages. Landing page copy was updated with the following header and supporting text:
Header: Did you know medical supplies are not accepted in your recycling?
Body: IV bags, medical tubing, sharps and other medical supplies don’t belong in your recycling. These materials can harm workers and get caught in equipment, creating safety hazards. See the full list of accepted materials below.
Key Takeaways
Both the Hamilton and Niagara Region campaigns performed within expected benchmarks for awareness-focused digital display advertising. Key considerations when evaluating this campaign:
A 0.13–0.14% CTR is typical for static display ads running on news and local newspaper networks. This format is inherently lower-engagement than social media (Meta/LinkedIn) because users are in a passive content-browsing mindset rather than an interactive one.
For awareness campaigns, impressions and reach are the primary success indicators not CTR. The combined ~201,031 impressions represent meaningful exposure to targeted audiences in both regions.
The detailed call-to-action (directing residents to the proper disposal information) was embedded within the ad creative itself, which is the appropriate strategy for this campaign type.
The campaign successfully ran across both regions with comparable delivery in Hamilton (101,002 impressions) and Niagara Region (100,029 impressions), indicating balanced targeting and pacing.
Creative featured on the right of a digital display ad.