Now that we all know what waste diversion really is, it’s our turn to see if people in our local community know as well. By observing patrons at HCC using the waste stations, we were able to see what kind of challenges are faced when sorting waste. We were also able to notice common trends, and now we have a better understanding of how we are able to change this seemingly complex task into something simple.  As you follow along in our second blog post, we will be introducing our project proposal alongside a brief discussion on the “what” aspects of our experiment: What did we do in our experiment? What did we find from our experiment? What we can take away from our first observations? What can we do to change waste sorting based on our first observations?

Please click here to take a look at our Project Proposal.

A set of bins with displayed placards at a zero waste station in the main lobby of Hillcrest Community Centre. 

PROGRESS: OBJECTIVES FOR THIS WEEK

1. Finalize our designs for the decals we are using for our second observation. We are currently waiting for the stencils images used for residential programs within the city. Upon receiving these images, we will  incorporate them into our final decal designs.  We plan to use  a combination of words and images for the final decal designs, which we will work on as a team.  
2. Plan our next data collection and email Paul so he can get in touch with the facility manager at HCC before we go. We also plan to do interviews with patrons to gain insight on the thoughts that led to their disposal decisions, as the data we gain from this will be an asset to our project. For this we will likely need to have consent forms printed for interviewees to sign.
3. Check-in with other group members regarding important due dates, and our overall project timeline. Think of link between food justice and our project, as we continue to do research
4. Stay in touch with the community partners and TA through e-mail.
5. Plan accordingly for the final project report and presentation.

ACHIEVEMENTS

So far, we have finished our project proposal, which has helped us to further understand the goals of this project. We have  attended two meetings with our community partners, and presented the three sets of decals we designed. During the second meeting, we shared our thoughts about our first visit to HCC. Our community partners also communicated  ideas for the decal designs and encouraged us to use stencil images for the decals, like the ones the city uses for their residential program. They suggested that we make a set of decals with a combination of words and images and use them for the second observation. We also talked about our findings and the impressions that we gathered after our  first visit. Within our one hour observational period, we were able to gather data from over sixty patrons. We will use this data, along with the data from our second observation period to articulate whether or not the decals have an influence on waste sorting.

As a group, we have discussed some of our future objectives and planned our second visit within the next two weeks. By practicing effective teamwork and communication with each other, we are successfully managing our schedule in meeting our deadlines and keeping track of the entire project timeline. We have also noticed that as we get more and more into the project, our passion in making a difference in the community is also growing. Our community partners have made a great contribution in inspiring us and providing sufficient guidance to enable us to become more creative in solving any particular problem we might face throughout this project.

Finally, our project proposal and blog postings have allowed us to keep on track in meeting our goals and developing our outlook for this project. The blog has also given us a platform to reflect on our community-based learning experience, the course readings and lecture notes such as the “How frustration can make us more creative” TED talk and asset-based community development’s guiding principles. These materials have taught us that encountering some obstacles can actually improve our performance through having diverse ideas, and different perspectives at play among our group members and community partners. We feel that we have made some great improvements and successfully achieved enough clarity regarding the significance, purpose and upcomings of this project after our first site visit and two meetings.   

WHAT?

Our team had our first observation and collected the first round of experimental data at Hillcrest Community Center on Sunday, February 12, 2017. Because the Hillcrest Community Center is such a large building, we decided it would be best that we split up our group into two groups: one group observing the waste bins by the main reception desk and the second group observing the waste bins by the cafe. This way, we were able to collect more data within the building in a short period of time. Overall, from our data, we observed a 50/50 split between people who sorted waste correctly and incorrectly. We also noticed other factors that could have contributed to their choices such as body language, time they had, age group and ethnicity. However, within the demographics, our data shows that this factor is inconclusive and does not affect the accuracy of waste sorting. One of the key waste products we had noticed that caused a lot of confusion were paper towels/napkins, coffee cups and lids. Most of the times, paper towels and napkins were thrown in the landfill bin rather than the compost bin. In terms of coffee cups and lids, a lot of the times the lids were not being separated from the coffee cups and were thrown together into either the mixed paper or landfill. This is worrisome because these types of wastes were one of the most prominent items seen being thrown out. We also observed  a lot of children, who to our surprise, were really adamant on throwing their waste into the right bin. There was one that stood out to us of a young child and his mother who had spent approximately 10 minutes educating her son on  which type of wastes belonged in which bins. This was so reassuring to see because the younger generation are the ones who will be making a difference in our future,  to see this habit being taught at such a young age was heartening.

SO WHAT?

Conducting our first observation without the decals was important because it helped us noticed that the age, gender and ethnicity of patrons do not have a significant effect on the waste sorting problem.  As previously mentioned, sorting soiled paper, food containers, and coffee cups in particular caused the most confusion to the patrons. The confusion and “messy problems” we face can inspire us creatively when deciding on our decal design (Tim Harford, 2016). Through our project, we are hopeful that our designed decals will assist in solving this issue at HCC. Relating our personal experiences and reflecting upon our observations, we think of inventive ways to study and implement a new idea. According to Ron Finley, food is the problem and the solution (Ron Finley, 2013). We are facing the similar issue at HCC which is “sorting waste is the problem and the solution”, how we can encourage people sorting waste spontaneously and then educate them to pass this good manner to the neighbourhood and next generations. We believe only providing the decals is not enough and the feedback from local residents is valuable for the “zero waste” program. Therefore, for the second site visit, we have decided to conduct interviews with random individuals to have a better understanding of other possible factors that could influence their waste-sorting ability. A consent form is needed for this next observation and the interviewee’s name and personal information will remain anonymous. We believe that the patrons’ opinions are the main contributors for this project and that meaningful engagement and active listening will help us encourage them to sign the form to conduct an interview.

Further, the collaboration with our community partners and each other has been very helpful for our group, especially during situations when we encountered disruptions and frustrations while designing the decals. During the second meeting with our community partners, we shared our own experiences and few challenges we encountered. We also suggested solutions based on the struggles we noticed from the patrons sorting their waste. We mentioned that soiled paper such as paper towels and napkins have brought too much confusion to the patrons, as well as paper coffee cups. So, we proposed to include signs like “paper towels here” and “Yes, your coffee cup goes here!”

This valuable information gives us a deeper understanding of the “zero waste” program and the Greenest City Action Plan 2020. Furthermore, these challenges allowed us to provide exceptional ideas and enhanced our performance.

NOW WHAT?

After our second meeting with our community partners, we are now preparing for our second observation which will include our final decal designs. We will create decals which correspond with the data we have taken from our first observation. In our first observation, we noticed that the organics bins was the easiest to be recognized rendering the most accurate waste sorting. Despite being the most recognizable, people generally viewed the organics solely for food and not for food-soiled paper products. Through this trend amongst others, we noticed that paper towels, facial tissues, and plastic cutlery caused the most confusion and have the most inaccurate waste sorting. By utilizing our first observations, we hope to effectively implement a decal that will improve the accuracy of waste sorting. We will conduct a second observation including the final decals. During the second observation, we will be collecting data in the same way that was done for the first observations; with the exception of demographics by request of our community partners. By analyzing the trends of the new set of data in comparison to that of the first set of data, we will determine whether the decals have an influence on waste sorting.
Overall, we have come to learn and understand the importance of waste management for the city. According to Paul Wagnon, the City of Vancouver has diverted 5000 tons of waste from landfill since 2016. Despite this being a huge step towards the Greenest City Action Plan, the community is still struggling to improve how this system works. Working in partnership with the City of Vancouver and CityStudio has helped us foster relationships within our community. This opportunity has allowed us to grow our experiences whilst providing our community partners with a creative and ‘fresh’ perspective on how to approach this problem. We have developed a newfound awareness and understanding for waste management. We have come to realize the effect this project has on our city and will have once it is implemented. With developing passions and a new perspective, we hope to make a positive impact on the community and help further develop the “Zero Waste” initiative.

Upcoming Objectives & How we Can Achieve Them

1. Determine the effectiveness of the decal designs on the accuracy of  waste sorting. After we combine  the observations from our second site visit, we can come to a  conclusion. We will compare our observation from the site visit without decals and with the decals to determine whether they were effective in the accuracy of waste sorting. If the accuracy of waste sorting increases with the decals implemented, we can assume that the decals may have an effect; otherwise not. We will try to maintain all others factors to reduce uncertainty and maintain consistency. With this analyzed data, we will create graphs or tables that display the data in an easily understandable manner.
2. Improve the “Zero Waste” initiative for future successors of this project. As this has been and will continue to be an ongoing project, we will help come up with new ideas for further project development. We will utilize our experience as a team to brainstorm ideas that can be implemented to continue to develop this initiative.
3. Prepare and present at the HUBBUB event on April 7 at City Hall. We will create a poster to showcase at HUBBUB. We will be preparing a presentation for the event which will include our decal designs, analyzed data, and progression of project.

References:

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community

Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474–486. Retrieved through the UBC Library Website.

Harford, T. (2016). Tim Harford: How frustration can make us more creative. [Youtube] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7wF2AdVy2Q. 

Finley, R. (2013). A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA. [Youtube] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZzZ_qpZ4w.

Stayed tuned to hear about our second visit to HCC, with the addition of our decals on the lids of bins! Do you think they will make an impact?