Issues: Green Enterprise

The Marist Survey on New York's Public Education Program for Recycling

In June 2001, NRDC contacted the Marist Institute for Public Opinion to commission a poll of New York City residents' knowledge of the City's recycling program.⁷ The poll was designed both to test residents' knowledge of the specifics of the city-run program and to gauge New Yorkers' opinion of the City's public education efforts with respect to the recycling program. MIPO conducted the survey from June 12th through June 19th of this year. Nine-hundred and eighteen (918) adults, 18 years of age or older, who reside in New York City were interviewed by telephone. MIPO randomly selected the telephone numbers from a complete list of telephone exchanges throughout the City, ensuring that each borough was represented in proportion to its population. The poll results are statistically significant at ± 3.5 percent for the entire sample. (While Marist staff have reviewed this report to insure that the text accurately reflects the results of their telephone survey, this report itself was prepared by NRDC.) The complete results of the Marist survey are included in Appendix "A."

A. New York City Residents Lack Knowledge of the Specifics of the City's Recycling Program

To test the knowledge of City residents as to the specifics of the recycling program Marist telephone surveyors listed twelve common household items and asked New Yorkers whether the Sanitation Department required that each item be placed in separate containers for recycling, or whether the item should be mixed in with regular garbage for disposal. The twelve items were: aerosol cans; deli and salad bar containers; envelopes with windows; household batteries; mirrors and light bulbs; pizza boxes; plastic bags; shampoo bottles; Styrofoam products; toasters and irons; wire hangers; and yogurt containers.

Under Sanitation Department rules and guidelines, four of these -- aerosol cans, toasters and irons, shampoo bottles, and wire hangers -- should be placed out for recycling collection in blue bins. Two items -- envelopes with windows and pizza boxes -- should be placed out for recycling collection in green bins. And the remaining six items -- deli and salad bar containers, household batteries, mirrors and light bulbs, plastic bags, Styrofoam products, and yogurt containers -- should not be placed out for recycling, but instead put in with the regular trash.⁸

The results of the Marist survey reveal a surprising lack of knowledge regarding what items should and should not be placed out for recycling in compliance with the City's recycling program. We identify four major findings from this part of the Marist survey below.

Finding #1. Only 4 of the 12 household items in the Marist survey were correctly identified by a majority of those polled as being recyclable or non-recyclable.

In other words, more than half of the New Yorkers in the sample could not correctly identify 8 of the 12 items in the survey as being either recyclable or non-recyclable. (See Table I.)

To be sure, the twelve items selected for the survey may not be typical of the City's entire waste stream. And had NRDC selected different items to be used in the Marist survey, the percentage of items correctly identified may have been higher. Still, the results demonstrate a surprisingly low understanding of the most basic provisions of the City's recycling program. Even though every one of the 12 items NRDC selected for the Marist survey appears on the Sanitation Department's itemized recycling poster ("With Your Help, It's All Falling Into Place" -- See Appendix "B"), residents confused "garbage" with "recyclables," and vice versa, well over half the time.

This finding suggests that, despite DOS's distribution of printed material that provides specific information on the subject of the Marist survey, most New Yorkers are not yet getting the message. The ultimate success of the program requires that the City improve its educational efforts on recycling. (In Part III of this report, NRDC proposes six recommendations for accomplishing that objective.)

Finding #2. Confusion persists over what is recycled under the City's program, with a significant number of residents incorrectly identifying six items that should be recycled.

Only 48 percent of those sampled knew that toasters and irons should be recycled and only 44 percent knew that envelopes with windows should also be recycled. And even for more familiar items, New Yorkers' knowledge of what should be placed out for recycling was far from perfect. For example, one out of four residents surveyed did not know that pizza boxes should be recycled, and more than four out of ten did not know that wire hangers should be recycled. (See Table I.)

This is a significant finding because it indicates that a substantial portion of the items in the sample that are in fact recyclables are not being recycled, at least in part because New Yorkers have not been sufficiently informed of precisely what they are expected to recycle. If New York City were to strengthen its recycling public education efforts, and more New Yorkers were to become familiar with precisely what should be recycled, recycling rates would be expected to increase.

Finding #3. A majority of New Yorkers did not correctly identify six items in the Marist survey as garbage when these items should in fact be placed out with the regular trash and are not recyclable.

In other words, a majority of New Yorkers thought that each of the six items in this category were recyclable (or were unsure), even though not one of the six items is in fact recyclable under the City's program. For example, 56 percent of the sample identified both household batteries and Styrofoam products as materials that should be placed out for recycling (or were unsure of what to do with these materials), despite the fact that the City's recycling program does not collect either of these items. (See Table I.)

This finding is important because public confusion over what is recyclable under the City's program leads to higher rates of "contamination" of recyclables. As a result, private vendors, with whom the City contracts to take recyclables collected by the Sanitation Department, end up with a significant portion of non-recyclables. High levels of regular waste that is mixed with recyclables decrease the value of the recyclables the City provides to these vendors (who in turn sort and ship out these materials for reuse as raw materials) and increase the costs to New York City for operating the recycling program.

Particularly noteworthy, on this point, is the Marist survey that revealed that 52 percent of New Yorkers believe that plastic bags are recyclable. An additional 8 percent were uncertain as to whether the bags are or are not recyclable. Plastic bags are not recyclable as part of New York City's program. Several New York recycling vendors have told NRDC that plastic bags were the single most troublesome "contaminant" in the materials brought to them by Sanitation Department recycling trucks. (The plastic bags, in which recyclables are often placed, interfere with operation of the sorting equipment at the vendors' recycling facilities.)

With more than 50 percent of New Yorkers believing that plastic bags should be recycled, the City's public education program is falling short, and efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the City's recycling program is being undermined.

Finding #4. Only 0.03 percent of New Yorkers correctly identified all 12 items as either recyclables or non-recyclables.

Again, it cannot be concluded that this level of confusion exists with respect to all products in the City's waste stream. Nevertheless, this finding, combined with the previous three findings, exemplifies a significant weakness that exists in the City's program to educate New Yorkers on the specifics of the recycling program.

B. New York City's Public Education Efforts on Recycling Need to be Strengthened, New Yorkers Say

In addition to demonstrating that the public education efforts have not yet successfully informed New Yorkers of the specifics of the recycling program, the Marist survey results also reveal that residents do not rate the City's public education program highly.

Finding #5. Fifty-nine percent (59 percent) of New Yorkers stated that the City is doing a "fair" or "poor" job of educating residents about the specifics of the Sanitation Department's recycling program, while only 41 percent thought the City's efforts were "good" or "excellent."

In a separate question in the Marist survey, residents were asked to grade the City's recycling outreach and education efforts on the following scale: "excellent," "good," "fair," or "poor." Only 11 percent of New Yorkers indicated that in their opinion the City's efforts were "excellent." Thirty percent (30 percent) indicated that the City was doing a "good" job in this area, while 40 percent answered "fair" and 19 percent answered "poor." (See Table II.) These responses indicate a lack of satisfaction by a majority of New Yorkers with the City's education efforts to date and a recognition that the public education program for recycling needs significant improvement.

Back to contents page | Next

Notes

7. The Marist Institute for Public Opinion is a non-profit, non-partisan survey research center that has taken opinion surveys of New Yorkers since its creation in 1978. It is affiliated with Marist College and located in Poughkeepsie, New York.

8. 16 RCNY §1-08; New York City Department of Sanitation, Recycling Poster, "With Your Help, It's All Falling Into Place."