Form 6200-020 Customer Satisfaction Survey for the America Recycles Ev

OMB Control Number: 2010-0042

Approval Expires: March 31, 2021

EPA Form Number: 6200-020

TITLE: 2020 America Recycles Network Participate Engagement Survey

INTRODUCTION

We appreciate you taking 10-20 minutes to complete this survey. As a member of the America Recycles Network, EPA would like to better understand your interest in contributing to the implementation of the projects and actions outlined in EPA’s 2019 National Framework for Advancing the U.S. Recycling System.

This survey is divided into 2 sections:

• Section 1: Implementing the National Framework for Advancing the US Recycling System
  Your responses will help EPA understand which actions your organization is interested in implementing to improve the U.S. recycling system. By indicating your interest in one or more areas, you are agreeing to be contacted by EPA to participate in a follow-up meeting to learn more about the project(s). Your organization’s participation in all projects or follow-up meetings is entirely voluntary. On the following pages, please identify which activities you are interested in addressing as part of a workgroup or project team. Activities are categorized by the four workgroups: 

1. Strengthening Secondary Materials Markets

2. Promoting Education and Outreach

3. Enhancing Materials Management Infrastructure

4. Enhancing Measurement Workgroup

• Section 2: Conference and Innovation Fair Feedback
  If you attended the 2019 America Recycles Summit or the 2019 America Recycles Innovation Fair, your feedback will be used to improve these events in 2020.

Identifier Question:

1. Please provide the following contact information so that we can follow up with you regarding any projects/activities of interest that you identify in the upcoming questions. (Response is required.)

Name ____________________________________________

Organization_______________________________________

Title______________________________________________

Email_____________________________________________

Phone____________________________________________

SECTION 1: Implementing the National Framework for Advancing the US Recycling System

Secondary Materials Markets

The Secondary Materials Markets workgroup supports the production of high-quality recycled materials that are incorporated easily into products, driving demand and creating an integrated, robust and sustainable domestic recycling system.

1. Are you interested in receiving the meeting announcements and updates related to the Strengthening Secondary Materials Markets workgroup? (mandatory question, all respondents must answer)

__ Yes

__ No

(All respondents (yes, no) will be able to select the activities to which they wish to contribute.)

2. Please select the Secondary Materials Markets workgroup projects or activities for which you are interested in participating in conference call(s) (optional - participants are not required to select any)

• Help host or plan market development workshops or virtual workshops to spur market development for recycled materials.

Purpose: Help expand the national market for recyclables by strengthening regional markets. Support national markets by strengthening regional markets and ultimately market expansion.

• Measure the success of market development workshops hosted in 2019 and 2020 by assessing the results and follow-up activities by participants.

Purpose: Help expand the national market for recyclables by strengthening regional markets. Support national markets by strengthening regional markets and ultimately market expansion.

• Develop and release a market development toolkit for governments, materials recovery facilities, and secondary processing facilities.

Purpose: Guide users on how to conduct cost vs benefit analysis for investments and plan for future materials. Provide contracting best practices to help meet current and future needs.

3. Are there any other actions related to strengthening secondary materials markets that you feel the America Recycles Network should address over the next year? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education and Outreach

The Education and Outreach workgroup develops clear, consistent messages about proper materials management activities that enable consumers to recognize the value of reusing, recovering, and recycling materials, as well as the value of buying products with recycled content.

4. Are you interested in receiving the meeting announcements and updates related to the Education and Outreach workgroup? (mandatory question, all respondents must answer)

__ Yes

__ No

(All respondents (yes, no) will be able to select the activities to which they wish to contribute.)

5. The following actions are associated with the Education and Outreach workgroup. Please select only the projects/activities in which you’re interested in participating in follow-up conference call(s) to further scope and implement the projects. (optional)

• Develop common recycling messages on nationally applicable and significant issues (such as where to put plastic bags for recycling) to promote awareness and to reduce contamination.

Purpose: Communities can use messages to reduce contamination.

• Evaluate the feasibility of a national public relations (PR) campaign on nationally applicable and significant issues.

Purpose: A national PR campaign could increase participation in recycling and reduce contamination.

• Develop and implement a pilot educational campaign to encourage recycling of plastic film and bags through retail and alternative collection programs.

Purpose: Keeping plastic film out of curbside collection programs helps keep them out of materials recovery facilities where the plastic bags cause safety hazards.

• Share and compile information on free, open-source, downloadable labels for recycling bins.

Purpose: This will help reduce contamination in the recycling stream.

6. Are there any other actions related to promoting education and outreach that you feel the America Recycles Network should address over the next year? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Infrastructure

The Infrastructure workgroup supports a holistic, modern and adaptable national recycling infrastructure that embraces innovation and is resilient to changes in material streams, markets and consumer expectations.

7. Are you interested in receiving the meeting announcements and updates related to the Infrastructure workgroup? (mandatory question, all respondents must answer)

__ Yes

__ No

(All respondents (yes, no) will be able to select the activities to which they wish to contribute.)

8. The following actions are associated with the Infrastructure workgroup. Please select only the projects/activities in which you’re interested in participating in follow-up conference call(s) to further scope and implement the projects. (optional)

• Develop a national map of existing recycling infrastructure to identify the gap to access in parts of the country.

Purpose: Help identify needed investments in infrastructure.

• Compile funding opportunities for infrastructure investments for organizations to support upgrades.

Purpose: Provide an overview of funding resources available to supplement organizations' efforts across the system.

• Conduct and compile research on successful infrastructure investments and potential investment opportunities.

Purpose: Provide valuable information to the public on infrastructure investment success stories and opportunities.

• Share results from the Materials Recovery for the Future pilot project, which assesses the circumstances in which collecting plastic film and plastic bags in municipal residential single-stream recycling is technically and economic feasibility.

Purpose: Help communities understand feasibility of plastic film recycling via curb-side collection.

• Explore the creation of incentives to encourage the investment in recycling and compile existing tax incentives.

Purpose: Help materials recovery facilities become more resilient to market fluctuations and enable them to accommodate evolving material streams.

9. Are there any other actions related to enhancing infrastructure that you feel the America Recycles Network should address over the next year? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Measurement:

The Measurement workgroup is establishing standardized recycling metrics that are supported by consistent terminology and methodology.

10. Are you interested in receiving the meeting announcements and updates related to the Measurement workgroup? (mandatory question, all respondents must answer)

__ Yes

__ No

(All respondents (yes, no) will be able to select the activities to which they wish to contribute.)

11. The following actions are associated with the Measurement workgroup. Please select only the projects/activities in which you’re interested in participating in follow-up conference call(s) to further scope and implement the projects. (optional)

• Further develop and enhance the workgroup’s diagram of the U.S. recycling system to account for the flow of specific materials.

Purpose: This will inform infrastructure needs and market development opportunities.

• Identify quantifiable data that are currently available and add them to the diagram of the U.S. recycling system.

Purpose: Inform the development of more accurate data on recycling facilities.

• Identify possible performance measures that could be used to characterize a portion or the entire U.S. recycling system.

Purpose: Measures can help track progress and identify opportunities for improving the recycling system.

12. Are there any other actions related to enhancing measurement that you feel the America Recycles Network should address over the next year? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cross-Cutting Activities

13. The following activity supports efforts of all four workgroups. Please select if you are interested in making a substantive contribution to the following action. (optional)

• Contribute to the web-based portal of recycling tools and resources.

Purpose: This virtual one-stop-shop will help recyclers and communities learn about best practices and share funding opportunities.

NOTE: The respondent will then see a screen summarizing all the activities and workgroups he/she expressed interest in via the previous questions. Respondents are instructed to go back to modify previous selections if they wish to change their responses. They will also be able to confirm their contract information on this screen.

14. Are there any other actions not previously noted that you feel the America Recycles Network should address over the next year? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. Are you interested in helping lead a project?

___Yes

___No

___Maybe

16. Are you interested in helping to plan the 2020 America Recycles Summit and Innovation Fair?

___Yes

___No

___Maybe

Qualifier Question:

1. Please check all the 2019 events you attended.

___ 2019 America Recycles Summit (if respondent selects this, he/she will complete the “Summit” section below)

___ 2019 America Recycles Innovation Fair (if respondent selects this, “yes” he/she will complete the “Innovation Fair” section below but will first be able to provide suggestions for 2020 Summit via Question 3 in section 2)

___ I did not attend the 2019 Summit or Innovation Fair (in this case the respondent is routed to two more question to complete the survey so that they can provide suggestions for 2020 Summit via Question 3 in section 2 and then the question “Is there any additional feedback you'd like to provide?”)

SECTION 2: 2019 America Recycles Summit

1. Did the 2019 Recycling Summit meet your expectations? (mandatory)

___5 – Greatly exceeded my expectations

___4 – Exceeded my expectations

___3 – Met my expectations

___2 – Less than my expectations

___1 – Much less than my expectations 

Why? (optional)________________________________________________________________

2. Did you participate in any America Recycles workgroups in 2019? Please check your answer. (mandatory)

___Yes

___No

3. Please provide any suggestions for the 2020 Summit regarding the Summit goals, objectives, themes, and any key deliverables you would like to see released in the space below. (optional but all survey recipients will be able to answer this question)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If the respondent answers “Yes” to question 3 above, they’ll be routed to questions 4-5. If they answered “No” to question 2 above, they’ll be skipped to the next section, as appropriate.

4. What did you find most useful about the workgroups? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. How can the workgroups be improved? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

B. 2019 America Recycles Innovation Fair Questions

1. Did the Innovation Fair meet your expectations? (mandatory)

___5 – Greatly exceeded my expectations

___4 – Exceeded my expectations

___3 – Met my expectations

___2 – Less than my expectations

___1 – Much less than my expectations 

Why? (optional)________________________________________________________________

2. What did you learn that was unexpected? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What did you hope to see or learn that you did not? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Were you pleased with the scheduled time for the 2019 Innovation Fair (1-6pm)? (mandatory)

___Yes

___No

___ Indifferent

5. What is a reasonable length of time to hold the 2020 Innovation Fair? (mandatory)

___half day ____ full day ____ 1.5 days

6. How did you hear about the 2019 Innovation Fair? Please check all that apply. (mandatory)

___Industry colleague ___EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Listserv

___EPALand Twitter ___Exhibit booth at SPC Advance 2019

___EPA’s Facebook ___Other (please specify)_______________________

7. Below are categories for exhibitors at the 2019 Innovation Fair:

• Concepts, prototypes, or products made completely out of recycled content

• Technologies, designs, or measurement strategies that promote more effective recycling

• Research that advances recycling systems or infrastructure

• Innovative materials and products that can be recycled more effectively

• Innovative education and communication methods or materials that promote more effective recycling

What other exhibitor categories, if any, would you like to see featured at the 2020 Innovation Fair? (optional)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Overall, how could the Innovation Fair be improved for 2020? (optional)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Which methods do you think would be most effective in calling for exhibitor applications to the 2020 Innovation Fair? Please check up to five answers. (mandatory)

___EPA press release ___EPA website ___Non-EPA press release

___EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Listserv ___ARN/pledge signers

___Exhibit booth at a conference (please specify the conference)_________________________

___EPA Land Twitter ___EPA’s Facebook

___Trade publication (please specify)

___Other (please specify)__________________________________________________________

10. Did you exhibit at the 2019 Innovation Fair? (mandatory)

___Yes

___No

If respondents answered “yes” to question 10 above, they will be prompted to answer questions 11-16. If they answered “no” to question 10 above, they’ll be advanced to question 16.

11. Overall, were you pleased with the fair’s logistics (e.g. time for set-up/take-down, supplies provided, communication before the fair, etc.)? (mandatory)

___5 – Very satisfied

___4 – Somewhat satisfied

___3 – Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

___2 – Somewhat dissatisfied

___ 1 – Very dissatisfied

___ Why? (mandatory)____________________________________________________

12. For 2020, EPA is considering having a longer Innovation Fair that is concurrent with the Summit or other recycling-related events (e.g., a workshop or breakout sessions). Which of the options below best reflect your organization’s preference regarding the Innovation Fair occurring as either a stand-alone event or happening concurrently with other events? (select one) (mandatory)

    1. I prefer concurrent events.  Please explain your response (mandatory): _________________________________________________________

    2. I prefer non-concurrent events.  Please explain your response (mandatory): _______________________________________________________

    3. I have no preference

    4. Other: __________________________________________________________________

13. Would you be willing to pay a fee for exhibition space at the Fair in 2020? (mandatory)

___Yes

___No

___Maybe

If respondent answered “Yes” or “Maybe” to question 13 above, they must answer question 14. If they answered “no” to question 13 above, they will be skipped to question 16.

14. What do you consider a reasonable fee for an exhibit? Please check an answer.

___$100 per half day ___$200 per half day ___$300 per half day

___$400 per half day ___$500 per half day

15. How can EPA improve the exhibitor experience in 2020? (mandatory question for all who exhibited)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Is there any additional feedback you would like to provide? (mandatory question for all survey respondents including those who selected “no” to attending the 2019 Summit and Innovation Fair)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ending Page: (Respondent sees upon completion of survey)

Thank you for completing the survey! Your feedback is essential in helping EPA improve our events and understanding how you wish to engage as a member of the America Recycles Network.

We will analyze the feedback and will follow up with you if you expressed interest in participating in a workgroup and/or specific project(s).

If you have questions, contact EPAReccyles@epa.gov.

Paperwork Reduction Act:

This collection of information is approved by OMB under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. (OMB Control No. 2010-0042). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The public reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection of information is estimated to range from 10 to 20 minutes per response. Send comments on the Agency’s need for this information, the accuracy of the provided burden estimates and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent burden including through the use of automated collection techniques to the Director, Regulatory Support Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2821T), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20460.  Include the OMB control number in any correspondence.  Do not send the completed form to this address.

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