J.C. Aguilar, a company manager for Preferred Graphics Installation, Newark, Calif., applies the custom decals to one of Norcal's trucks using a special adhesive.

For most people, garbage is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind proposition. While many may realize that much of what they toss in the garbage should actually be redirected to a recycling or composting cart, as long as that material goes away, there's no further need to worry about it.

In an effort to stem this tide of blissful ignorance, San Francisco-based Norcal Waste recently unveiled 3-D imagery on the sides of 20 trucks depicting exactly what most of them contain — pizza boxes, milk cartons, banana peels, cardboard take-out containers, watermelon rinds — items that should be recycled or composted. Superimposed over this cross-section of trash is the outline of a recycling cart encompassing a photo of a lush vineyard, an ocean scene or a redwood grove. The message is clear: by recycling or composting the materials shown in the truck, people can help protect the environment.

The idea behind the campaign is to get consumers to take a second look at their garbage and realize that it isn't waste at all, says Norcal spokesman Robert Reed. "When people look at their garbage, they should see paper, metal, plastic containers and food scraps — things that should be recycled or composted," he says.

Using their trucks as part of an educational campaign is nothing new for the company. In 2006, Norcal turned the sides of their junk collection trucks into catchy billboards. One showed an old washing machine with the tagline "Wants to Come Back as a Hybrid." Another showed an old television with the tagline "The Smithsonian Already Has One."

The current campaign furthers Norcal's goal — mandated by the city — that it divert 75 percent of its waste by 2010 and have a zero waste by 2020. Currently, San Francisco has a 70 percent diversion rate — the highest rate of any city in the country.

To ramp up its recycling and composting outreach efforts, Norcal directed its public relations agency to contact San Francisco-based Brainchild Creative, which created what Norcal considers to be the state's most effective education campaign, "Flex Your Power." The campaign's effort to get people to turn off unused lights and other electrical devices, has saved more than 3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, worth more than $500 million.

To focus on recycling and composting, Reed brought the campaign's creative team down to Norcal's San Francisco recycling and transfer center for an unvarnished look at what the company likes to call "the pit."

"We told them, 'We can show you some fancy recycling lines, but we're not going to do that. We're going right to the pit'," Reed says. "We showed them the 'garbage, garbage' — the stuff that does not get recycled but instead goes to the landfill. The pit is an otherworldly place. It smells. It's dirty."

"The pit is our challenge. We are charged with recycling more of San Francisco's trash," says Reed, referring to the city's three-cart program that sends recyclables to a blue cart, compost to a green cart and anything else to a black cart.