This report provides a critique of Company X's strategy of reliance on vol-
unteer organizations and makes recommendations to support and improve
its collection operations. We used focus-group interviews and a national
email survey of volunteer leaders to determine the motivating factors for
joining and participating in the program. Our results show that 68% of
collection sites are located in schools and that schools are the most pro-
ductive sites. Most non-school collection sites are primarily female. There
are two leading motivational factors for sites: nancial rewards and con-
cern for the environment, and site o cials would like to be able to share
best practices with each other. Anecdotally, collection site o cials are
frustrated by Company X's customer service and by the long waitlists for
the more popular waste items. We recommend that Company X focus in
the short-term on increasing its volunteer productivity through improved
customer service, by providing volunteer groups a platform with which
to communicate with one another, and by sharing speci c volunteer de-
mographics with CPG brand partners. In the medium-term, Company
X should focus on enhancing its environmental message and diversifying
volunteer demographics, and in the long-term, should consider how best
to modify its business model in moving forward to nd alternative ways
of financing Squads.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90949/4/TC_FINAL_7-May-2012.pd
