Waste Disposal Accuracy

Brandon Holloway, Mia Leone, John Henry Nolan, Ricky Tharrington,

Sterling Wilder

Recycling Laws and Standards

• National Law • Research Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

• No requirements specified

• North Carolina Laws• Solid Waste Management Act of 1989

• Requires waste reporting, increasing incentives for recycling

• Incentives decrease, encourages development of internal incentives

• House Bill 859• State Plan to Increase Recycling to be evaluated periodically

Business Incentives

• Beneficial on a large scale• Funds needed for startup

• Difficult to Start• Small businesses cannot afford large scale

recycling

• Government Intervention• North Carolina Incentivizes businesses that recycle

• Incentives decrease over time, encouraging internal incentives on business level

Receptacle Design

• Hole Design• Physical limitation to waste composition

• Signs/Labels• Remind people to recycle

Research Statement

The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of informative cues on recycling compliance on East Carolina University’s (ECU) Campus.

Purpose of the Study

• What encourages people to recycle?• Signs?

• Habit?

• How effective are signs at changing habit?

Our Sign

Defining Our Methodology

• Overview

• Facility Access

• Sign Design

• Data Collection

Methodology - Overview

• Record data on diners in Mendenhall• Trash Composition

• Disposal Accuracy

• Record Data for two populations• When the Recycling Sign isn’t placed

• When the Recycling Sign is placed

Legend:

- Trash/Recycling Receptacle

- Observation Location

6

5 4 7

1

2

3

Facility Access

• Permission Needed to Place Sign• Several Levels of Approval

Data Collection

• Participants were watched• Four things were recorded

• Whether or not there was a sign

• Whether or not they looked at the sign

• Whether or not they had recycling

• Whether or not they threw trash in the correct place

• Unobtrusive Observation

Mia Leone

Should we have a results title? Just so people make the econnection of knowing exactly what we are talking about and we have moved onto our data

95% Confidence Interval = [5.67% to 16.73%]

95% confidence interval = [74.69% to 95.59%]

95% confidence interval = [77.90% to 92.12%]Ho= Sample proportions are the

sameHa= Sample Proportions are different One tailed T-Test comparing two proportions yielded area of .71884, not significant at the 5% significance level.

Ho= Sample proportions are the sameHa= Sample Proportions are different One tailed T-Test comparing two proportions yielded area of .9354, not significant at the 5% significance level.

Research Approval

• Submission to university research panel

• Must prove study is ethical, etc.

• No human participants/responses recorded

• Easily approved

Data Collected/Results

Questions ?