Who Did You Interview?
- I interviewed my dad.
Demographics That Might Provide Helpful Context for Their Responses
- Male
- Older than me (50 years old)
- Works as an engineer
- Lives with my mom and me
- Lives in a suburban city
Key Findings from the Interview
- What comes to mind when you hear the term "waste" used in a green way?
- What kind of waste do you care most about and why?
- How do you reduce waste in your life?
- How are you or the people around you contributing to waste?
When my dad hears the term "waste," he thinks about wasting water, wasting energy, and not maintaining materials that should conserved.
My dad cares most about school waste because he believes that it affects me. When he visited my school, he saw that there were no recycling bins and everything was thrown in the trash can. He was shocked to see that my peers threw away so much food and that there was so much paper wastage. He was appalled to see that there was no composting program implemented at school.
My dad always keeps a water bucket in the shower so that he can use it to water plants. He also tries to take short showers and also turns off all home appliances when he's not using them. He tries to do everything digitally (ex. reading PDFs) rather than printing out paper copies instead. He likes bringing his own water bottle instead of plastic bottles instead (because it's unhealthy as well!).
When my dad goes to buffets with his coworkers, he notices that they often take too much food than they can eat. During his in-person meetings pre-COVID, he also noticed that his coworkers printed out many sheets of paper when they could've used technology instead (especially since they are working in the tech field!).
- What kind of product do you think would help reduce the waste you mentioned in the earlier question or just waste in general?
He thinks that composting bins will greatly help people reduce their food waste, especially bins that have labels that teach people which food goes where. He also thinks that metal straws would help people reduce straw usage as well.