There are opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of your policy all along the chain of use, including after your regulation passes. If you have conducted surveys of consumers or retailers, or performed a litter audit on the front end, you should be able to compare the results on the back end.

Once again, it’s important to keep in mind that impacts can be social, environmental, and/or economic. Carrying out a survey of the market’s cleanliness or the residents’ average consumption can also allow the measure’s acceptance to be increased by stressing the measure’s immediate and positive impacts.

Post-implementation surveys and data collection are suggested. Monitor success and report back one year after implementation to tout the effectiveness of the program. Doing so will help you to be prepared to defend the program should there be an initiative to repeal it.

Examples of impact assessments include: Plastic bag reductions; increase in reusable bag or no bag behavior; business profit and/or savings; waste reduction and/or litter audits