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M <br />INTRODUCTION <br />Orange County Solid Waste Management ( OCSWM) contracted with the H.W. Odum Institute <br />for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill (Odum) to assist <br />with the design and analysis of a survey of users of the County's five Solid Waste Convenience <br />Centers (SWCCs). The primary purpose of the survey was to collect data with which to <br />apportion the usage of the SWCCs into two parts: usage by residents who live in the <br />incorporated areas of the county, and usage by residents who live outside the incorporated <br />areas. Information about recycling behavior and preferences was also collected. Odum <br />statisticians worked with OCSWM staff to devise a sampling and data collection plan to provide <br />a "snapshot" view of SWCC usage for a finite time period. OCSWM staff chose a time period <br />that was free of holidays or other events that might cause aberrations in SWCC usage, and <br />implemented the data collection plan. OCSWM staff entered data from the collected surveys <br />into an application provided by the Odum Institute, and Odum statisticians analyzed the data <br />and wrote this report. <br />■ k h l a 1: to] O I G I V I a: W 1 <br />The following sections describe the survey instrument, sample design, and data collection <br />procedures for the survey. <br />SURVEY INSTRUMENT <br />OCSWM staff drafted the questions to be asked in the survey. Odum reviewed the draft for <br />adherence to best practices in survey methodology (clarity, unbiased wording, completeness of <br />response categories, etc.) and provided assistance with forms design. A copy of the <br />questionnaire is included as Appendix A. <br />IN /OUT OF TOWN LIMITS <br />The first and most important survey question asked the customer "Do you live within the town <br />limits of one of the towns ?" Though seemingly a straightforward question, a significant number <br />of Orange county residents do not know whether they live inside town limits. Therefore the <br />survey form itself and the training of the data collectors focused on additional questions and <br />techniques to confirm /clarify the customer's response. <br />The first clarification question asked whether the customer has curbside recycling available to <br />them. Unless they live in an apartment, the answer should be "yes" for all customers who live <br />in the incorporated areas; if it was not, the data collector was trained to delve further by asking <br />the customer's street name and consulting a list of street names in the incorporated areas in <br />