Greensboro Recycling Survey and Recycling Program Assessment

1. Greensboro Recycling Survey and Recycling Program Assessment Alex Arnett Waste Reduction Supervisor City of Greensboro

2. Today’s Topics • Part I: Recycling Survey • Why we conducted a survey • How we did it • What we learned from it • Part II: Recycling Program Assessment • Assessment purpose • Key findings • Recommendations

3. Part I: Recycling Survey

4. Recycling Survey: The Need • Program Rebrand/ new outreach • Need to know: • Residents’ knowledge level • Barriers to recycling • Attitudes • Behaviors

5. Recycling Survey

6. Process • Created survey in-house • Printed 90,000 copies in-house • Mailed via water bill • Received responses: • Direct mail • Returned with water bill payment • Survey available online

7. Survey Response • Overwhelming response- around 10% • Most popular response method: with water bill payment

8. Data Entry • Used Survey Monkey to enter data • Over 8,000 paper responses- needed help • Hired temps, enlisted light-duty employees • About 10 weeks to enter all data

9. Survey Response Map Recycling Survey Response

10. Survey Results • What’s Acceptable “Quiz” Portion • “C” Average

12. Write-In Responses • I AM A HARDCORE ENVIROMENTALIST AND THERE COULD NEVER BE TOO MANY MEASURES OR EFFEORTS TO SAVE THE PLANTET. I COMMEND THE CITY OF GREENSBORO ON ITS EFFORTS TO KEEP THE GREEENS IN GREENSBORO.

13. Write-In Responses • Put simply, I sometimes don't recycle - on purpose - because the City does not REQUIRE it. It's my form of a passive protest because I feel strongly that by recycling currently I am condoning the fact that it's an optional activity…Until common sense is legislated however, I will continue to intentionally not take measures to recycle when I easily could.

14. Write-In Responses

15. Attitudes • Everyone knows that recycling helps the environment • Less sure about where recycling goes, financial benefits of recycling • Feel unsure about what to recycle (know the basics, unsure about specifics)

16. Part II: Recycling Program Assessment

17. Program Assessment: Purpose • Rebrand • Identify strengths and weaknesses • Establish performance benchmarks • Make recommendations that: • Strengthen program and improve performance • Improve customer service and access to programs • Make financial sense, i.e. return on investment

18. Program Assessment: Key Indicators • Metrics • Community Input • Programs • Education and Outreach • Marketing • Policy and Code Enforcement • Performance Measurement • Technology

19. Metrics • Contamination Rate • Recycling Pounds Per Household • Set-Out Rate (participation rate?) • Recycling Rate

20. Metrics- Map

21. Summary • Resident confusion and lack of knowledge • Low participation, non-participation • High contamination (20%)- two kinds of contamination

22. Key Recommendations • Blue Cart Conversion project • Direct mail marketing • Code enforcement upgrades • New policies • Multi-Material Drop Off Center

23. Implementation

24. Questions? Alex Arnett City of Greensboro- Field Operations Waste Reduction Supervisor Alex.Arnett@Greensboro-NC.gov (336) 373-2342