These are my observations about peoples’ behaviors …
As a Zero Waste Intern, I’ve spent quite some time observing people’s disposal behaviors both as a bin monitor and through waste audits at PSSI. LBRE (Land Buildings and Real Estate) sponsors bin monitors like me to stand by compost, landfill, and recycling bins at theirs and Doerr School events. It appears as if the people attending these events (they tend to be events revolving around sustainability that invite or attract people who are involved in those fields) are more educated and careful about how they approach waste disposal. However, I have observed some interesting behaviors such as:
- some people are in a rush and don’t want to spend the extra 10-15 seconds separating their waste. It often leads to a lot of compostables and recyclables in the landfill
- some people are reluctant or opposed to change/intervention. Part of bin monitoring requires educating folks on where specific items from an event should be disposed of. However, this is difficult when people appear to be in a rush or will explicitly say they don’t know or care where their waste ends up. One man at a basketball game in Maples had said “I’m going to put my garbage wherever.”
- The labels on bins are not always that easy to read, and some items are really complicated to throw away (maybe you need to take it apart or check certain parameters to determine if something is recyclable, e.g. aluminum bottles can be recycled, but some bottle lids are not recyclable and should be removed first). People who do care to properly dispose of their waste don’t always know how to, and that can be frustrating and/or lead to improper disposal despite efforts not to.
I’ve also attended waste audits at PSSI (Stanford’s waste hauler) such as one that collected a day’s worth of the Gates building’s compost, landfill, and recycling. We sorted through a dumpster worth of bags and found about 70% (!!!) of the bags that would have ended up in the landfill contained compostables and recyclables. In the photo below, three full trays of Zareen’s catering were thrown in the dump 😞. Food waste is traditionally compostable, but that amount of food could have easily been recovered for more to enjoy. We also found that the recycling and compost bags were both about 30% contaminated. This further implies carelessness and confusion around waste disposal that I observed while bin monitoring.
I also had the opportunity to speak with the co-founder of Coupa Cafe, JP Coupal. He recognized these same observations a while back, and attacked the issue of people’s waste-wise behaviors in an interesting way. He agreed with my idea that many people are reluctant to changing their behaviors, even if it is for a greater good. So instead, everything at Coupa Cafe is now compostable. Literally everything 🙌 cups, plates, bowls, straws, the likes. They only require a compost bin in their vicinities (something that is being worked on currently- perhaps a larger compost bin and mini recycling and landfills)! That way, you’d have to actively put in a lot of effort to try to contaminate the waste stream in a Coupa Cafe. There is no confusion as to where to dispose of your waste, because it all should go in the same bin.