Curbside Recycling Audit

Both before and after conducting a curbside recycling education and improvement initiative in the City of Norcross in partnership with the national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership, I led curbside recycling audits to assess the quality of the city's recycling stream. I guided volunteers in conducting these capture studies across 19 material categories and 10 days. I followed up by analyzing the data and providing a report to the City detailing the prevalence of targeted recyclables and undesirable contaminants, the contamination rate overall and per route, and the market value of Norcross' recycling output. The audits were critical in providing reliable and reportable program success metrics, including a citywide contamination rate reduction of almost 1/3 and an increase in commodity value of $63 per ton.