The project is under a partnership of UBC SEEDS and UBC Composting.
UBC Social, Ecological, Economic, Development Studies (SEEDS) goals is to create a more sustainable campus at UBC by “[engaging] students in real life research; [linking] staff with the intellectual resources of the university; [enhancing] teaching and community services opportunities for faculty, and [building] community on campus”. SEEDS was the first academic operation with this goal in Western Canada. UBC SEEDS uses the campus as a living lab to become a leader in sustainability. This is done under the leadership of Dr. John Robinson. This groundbreaking organization came to be because of the senior staff’s vision to create a change in the UBC’s operation systems to increases the campus’ sustainability. The first project completed by UBC SEEDS was the creating a Heritage Trail at UBC. The trail was created by the combined efforts of UBC’s landscape artist and Masters students in the School of Community and Regional Planning; both of whom reported benefiting from the combination of staff and students. Today, UBC SEEDS has 2800 participants and has completed six large scale projects.
UBC Composting was a one of the first regional food waste management programs created in June 2000. It was established under the mission to reduce the amount of waste produced at UBC by small and large scale composting. The goals of UBC Composting are to continuously provide composting information to the UBC community to increases participation in composting, consult and support group wishing to start small scale composting, support student, staff and faculty research in the composting sector, continuously monitor the organization projects and operations, reduce UBC waste by composting organic material and using the finished compost for campus landscaping. UBC compost its material by means of a large-scale in-vessel compost unit. The unit was put into use in September 2004. UBC composting produced 388 tonnes of compost in the 2010/2011 academic year. UBC composting is unique in that it is a closed-loop system, meaning that all compostable waste produced at UBC is composted at UBC and the finished compost is used for UBC landscaping.
The goal of the project is to create an easier method of keeping UBC composting bins, the green carts and food scraps pails, clean. UBC is seeking to improve upon the current method to minimize cost and staff effort. The favoured method of doing so would be by using a decomposable paper liner. Due to UBC’s current composting program there are a number of restraints that should be considered when designing a solution. Firstly, the composting facilities cannot accept plastic bags, as they do not break down in the in-vessel composting unit. Also, UBC currently uses a beige pail illustrated in figure 1. This is a relatively new pail type, and there are a significant number of them currently in use throughout campus. Replacing these pails, although an option, would not be ideal and would have a significant cost factor. An ideal solution, would attempt to utilise facilities and products that UBC currently has in a more efficient, cost-effective and clean manner. It is not required that the proposals solve issues for both the green carts (figure 2.) and the pails, but this is not limiting.
The project can be successfully completed by the following strategies. Firstly, all the members of the team will individually brainstorm three possible solutions. These ideas will be presented in a team meeting. During this meeting the top three ideas will be chosen. Then each idea will be elaborated in a team of two. These solutions and their corresponding descriptions will be presented to the client in a interim report. A meeting will then be held with the client to decide on the best solution collaboratively. From there, the chosen solutions will be further developed and a prototype will be made. This will be presented to the clients in a final meeting.