MEMORANDUM
To: Dr. Erika Paterson
From: Brent Hanover
Date: February 23, 2019
Subject: Formal Report Progress Report
Below is a progress summary on my report on reducing plastic waste at UBC food vendors.
Intended audience:
The intended audience of this report is Navin Ramankutty, Interim Director of the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability. Navin can read this report and get a better sense of how much plastic is generated and wasted by UBC food vendors. Then, the steps outlined in the report can be followed to lessen plastic use.
Purpose of report:
- Bring awareness to the amount of plastic waste produced by UBC food vendors
- Offer non-plastic alternatives, or alternatives with better ability to be recycled
- Provide alternatives that will cost less than current products
Significance of the report:
- Each owner should be striving to provide zero-waste food services
- This report provides methods of reducing costs for each owner
Research plan:
- Select random samples of vendors from stratified populations
- Deep dive into all plastic waste created by these vendors, ie cutlery, cups, takeout containers, etc
- Compile report on each vendor on all their single-use plastic usage
- Calculate yearly plastic waste based on average restaurant sales and vendor reports
- Surveying for sales data not in scope – find data for average food vendors
- Investigate non-plastic or recyclable alternatives
- Obtain cost estimates from suppliers for alternatives based off of yearly usage
- Compile report on potential cost savings
Writing schedule:
- February 23: Formal report outline and progress report
- March 1: Compile reports on sample UBC food vendors
- March 8: Finalize yearly plastic waste and cost savings data
- March 15: First draft of report
- March 17: Peer review of final report draft
- March 20: Revised final report based on peer review
- April 7: Final draft of report
- April 10: Final report due
Thank you for reading; I look forward to presenting the rough draft on March 17. My report for each food vendor is attached below. Please direct any questions or concerns to me.
Enclosure:
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