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An investigation into Waste Station Stream Tracking System in the new SUB

University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

Recycling has proven to be a necessity in sustaining life on the planet and thus is being explored by organisations in the hopes of coming up with new means of sustainability. It can be as small as one person recycling one single plastic cup per, or as large as a multinational company handling their waste the best way possible. Regardless, these are the steps to clean air, clean water, and longer lifespan for every species on earth. Proper recycling requires the society to know how and what to recycle. As such, it seems like a good idea to provide people with instant feedback on their recycling both of their role in the recycling community, as well as the trends of the community as a whole. The purpose of this report is to assess not only the economical, environmental and social aspects of two potential hardware or software combinations that serve the purpose of waste tracking and feedback, but also to ascertain whether the project as a whole will be effective at increasing recycling, and what can be done to aid this. Personal interviews as well as online surveys have shown that most people would be interested in getting an instant feedback on what they have done, in other words: how much they have helped toward a brighter future. The surveys have also shown that taking advantage of social aspects to aid in the effectiveness of this project is also a good idea ( detailed later in the report ). Providing instant feedback will not be easy and without costs. Extensive research has provided two of the best hardware and software companies who have worked on tracking waste and giving feedback. Drawing from a series of interviews with previous users of such products, it can be concluded that although the Intelex software will require the additional aspects of a system to install on as well as an attachable scale, it still is the most sustainable and cheapest product currently on the market. Through assessing the triple bottom line assessment, carefully going over the economical, environmental and social aspects of each product. This report details why Intelex software is the correct choice, and that installing such a system in the SUB at UBC would indeed be an effective method of increasing recycling rates. 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.”

Text

University of British Columbia. APSC 261; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108804

Applied Science, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/