Research to Inform and Improve Recycling in the Workplace. April 13, 2016

Transcription

1 Research to Inform and Improve Recycling in the Workplace April 13, 2016

2 Who We Are Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. We envision a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live. We provide the expertise, programs and resources to help people: End Littering; Improve Recycling; Beautify communities in America. Our collective action champions environmentally healthy, socially connected and economically sound communities.

3 Keep America Beautiful Behavior Change System Integrated Approach 5 Created by Behavioral Scientists Step Management Process 4Behavior Strategies Field-Tested

4 Strategic Impact Goals (2025) END LITTERING IN AMERICA Reduce litter by 35% in Keep America Beautiful affiliate service areas IMPROVE RECYCLING IN AMERICA Improve recycling attitudes and behavior by 20% nationally and recycling quality by 15% in affiliate service areas BEAUTIFY AMERICA S COMMUNITIES Improve, restore and maintain 1 million public spaces

5 Improve Recycling Educate, motivate, activate individuals to recycle Individuals & Consumers Workplace College K-12 America Recycles Day I Want To Be Recycled PSA Recycling on the Go Recycle Mania Recycle- Bowl

6 Keep America Beautiful Recycling Department Impact Raising Awareness First of its kind national public service advertising campaign that has received over $115 million in donated media, and 3 million website visitors to learn more about recycling Pledge to Recycle More than 200,000 individuals have taken the I Will Recycle pledge K-12/College students Through competition programs, engaged 5 million students with recycling messages Recycling Ambassadors Worked with and provided resources to 5,000 educators to unify, simplify and amplify recycling messaging and approaches Provide On-the-Go Recycling Provided over 1,000,000 people with daily access to on-the go recycling Research and strategy Conducted first of its kind research on recycling bin configuration and communications, improving recycling by 20% in office settings 6

7 National Recycling PSA Campaign Increase recycling participation by creating strong passion and reason to believe in recycling

8 TV Commercials

9 Campaign Results Overview $116M Total campaign donated media Exposure $6M Personal Care donated media Exposure 38% Have seen/heard the campaign Awareness 3.2M+ Visitors to Website Engagement 9

10 Where MSW is Generated

11 Ease of Recycling by Location Recyclers find it easiest to recycle in their own residence. Residence Ease of Recycling (Bottom 4 Box: Not difficult) 74% Workplace 35% Public places 30% Local schools 28% Public parks 27% Base: Recyclers, n=793 Q: For each of the following locations, please tell me how difficult it is to recycle there, using a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not difficult at all and 10 is extremely difficult

12 Research Objectives: Test the impact of recycling and trash bin configurations on recycling in the workplace. Metrics: - Increase recycling - Reduce trash in the recycling bins - Reduce recyclables in the trash bins

13 Workplace Waste by Type Breakdown of Waste Stream in a Typical Office Building by Type* *Great Forest average waste audit results

14 Opportunity to Make a Difference 5.6 million commercial buildings in the U.S. Total over 87 billion square feet Source: The Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), EIA

15 Partners

16 Participating Office Buildings Boston San Diego Atlanta Houston

17 Four Set-Ups Tested 1) Little trash bin with desk sized recycling bin 2) Equal size trash and recycling bins 3) Recycling bin only 4) Information only

18 Poll Which desk-side bin set up do you think would be most successful at increasing accurate recycling? A. B. C. D.

19 Common Area Bins and Signage

20 Data Collection

21 Employee Survey Pre-Audit Web Survey Pre-Notification Post-Audit Web Survey Pre-Notification Survey Link Survey Link Reminder , Note, and Coupon Reminder , Note, and Coupon

22 Employee Survey Topics Office Recycling General Knowledge, Behavior, and Beliefs Knowledge, Behavior, and Beliefs about Flyer Items Spillover to home and public Evaluation of Project (post-survey only) Classification Questions

23 Conclusions and Recommendations

24 Conclusion: Little Trash Most Successful Increased correct disposals Decreased recyclables in the trash from 29% to 13% Decreased recycling bin contamination by 20% Positive experience One thing I particularly liked about the Recycling at Work was: different sized bins really helped.

25 Equal Size - Fairly Successful Some desirable changes: Kept trash out of the recycling No significant decrease in recyclables in the trash No significant change in the weight of paper in trash Decreased recycling bin contamination 17% Positive experience The thing I did differently because of Recycling at Work was I recycled more often and with more confidence since I now have a better understanding of what to recycle and what not to [recycle].

26 Recycling Only-Least Successful Poor results Undesirable or neutral audit results 14% increase in recyclables in the trash No change in weight of office paper in the trash No change in recyclables in the recycling Neutral to Negative experience One thing I would change about Recycling at Work is: [I] need to have both trash cans in my office, not just a recycle bin. For example, I eat a banana every day and having to walk the peel to the kitchen room is a nuisance.

27 Information only No behavioral changes Some changes in knowledge Insufficient to change behavior Necessary to go beyond

28 Frequency of Incorrect Disposal 28

29 Percentage of Recyclables in Trash Fewer recyclables were in the trash for the Little trash condition. Same trend for Equal Size. Increase of recyclables in trash in recycling only Baseline Short term Long term Equal-size Recycle Only Little Trash* Information Only Note: Weight of Recyclables divided by Total Weight of Material Collected in Trash bin *indicates statistically significant

30 Recommendations 1. Make recycling easy Include paired bins in the common areas Keep signage simple Message on, or near, the recycling bin about common items 2. Use effective placement Co-locate recycling and trash at the workstation Use the Little Trash set-up - If not feasible, use Equal Sized set-up

31 Recommendations 3. Be consistent One program throughout the building Same colors, images, messages, placement - Decreases confusion for cleaning staff - Decreases confusion for employees

32 Resources See for more information, tools, report and fact sheet Contact local solid waste facility for locally relevant information

33 Raising Visibility for Recycling in the Workplace The Opportunity 35 45% of municipal solid waste is generated in the workplace according to USEPA, much of which is recyclable Pledge Objective Increase recycling of workplace generated materials by challenging organizations and businesses to voluntarily: Pledge to increase recycling Engage employees to recycle more at work Review procurement practices Agree to report on actions Invite another organization to take the pledge 33

34 Recycling at Work Benefits Access free tools, tips and customizable templates to support your workplace recycling program Tools & Resources Employee Engagement Materials (like our dynamic recycling Myth Busters presentation) Employee Recognition Fact Sheets Media Promotion Online Promotion Recycling poster Customizable signage for recycling bins

35 America Recycles Day November 15 Celebrating and activating recycling 2,000 registered education/collection events 2 million participants 45,000 individuals pledge to recycle more

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37 Plastic bags and film, including dry cleaning bags, are recyclable.

38 You can also recycle shopping bags, bread bags, produce bags and newspaper bags at many retail locations. (Note: plastic bags should not go in your recycling bin at home or at work)

39 Plastic bags and films can become fences, decks, benches, and new bags!

40 QUESTIONS? 40

41 For more info contact: Brenda Pulley - bpulley@kab.org Alec Cooley - acooley@kab.org Tyler Orton torton@kab.org