Disarming NIMBY with the facts: Field notes on explaining controversial technologies for concerned audiences

A case study of the technical communications strategy we devised for a Florida company is given. In proposing a hazardous waste treatment facility, the firm came face-to-face with the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome. The company was further challenged by an organized campaign from an environmentalist special interest group with a reputation for strident and disruptive tactics. The linchpin in the company´s strategy for defusing the growing controversy was to lead the facts, and to present them objectively in published form. The goal was to bring forward the scientific and social underpinnings of the technology proposed for the facility. At the same time, standard modes of persuasive communication were viewed as self-serving and therefore suspect. The solution was to create informative publications modeled on science journalism