Open Collections

Improving Waste Sorting in the AMS Nest at UBC

Sauder School of Business; University of British Columbia. Alma Mater Society; University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning; University of British Columbia. UBC Facilities

A plethora of research exists confirming the environmental, health and economic consequences of improper disposal of organic waste (e.g., food scraps). At the Nest, the high rate of contamination in compost bins is a significant contributor to overall organic waste generated at UBC. This is partly due to the zero tolerance of non-compostable items permitted in the compost bag that is needed to avoid diversion of the entire bag to the landfill. One person’s small action does, indeed, have a big impact and a reason why this project is both suitable to a BI intervention and important for environmental, health and economic sustainability. The target behaviour of our project is to decrease contamination in the compost bins in the Nest. This problem is a good fit for a behavioral insights (BI) approach as the action itself (proper sorting) is behavioural in nature. Additionally, a solution would be highly scalable and easily implemented campus-wide (and possibly beyond) for minimal cost. Based on a review of previous waste audits conducted in the building, conversations with our project partners, and intercept interviews conducted in the Nest, we determined that confusing and inconsistent signage was the most significant barrier to proper waste sorting. Our BI project aimed to improve signage and nudge people towards better composting behaviours. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2023-09-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85818

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/