These are my observations about peoples’ behaviors …
For this observation experiment I did the majority of my watching in Late night at Lakeside and thus wrote these observations and thoughts about what was found at that location. Some people appear to not think too much about throwing their things out and seem confident in where they are placing items. Some people just dump everything in the compost bin and walk away. Some people go to put something in the recycling and instead of leaving it there seem to reconsider, take it back out, and then place it in the trash.f
People seem the most likely to put things into the compost bin which is likely because most things being deposited are food scraps or compostable containers and utensils. Interestingly, when recycling products, people seem to look more, or second guess, their item’s placement. This is different then how people engage with the trash; when throwing something in the trash, people seem the least likely to look at what they are throwing out then the other two waste containers.
Additionally, people have various ways of placing items in these bins. Some people toss in products like it is a game- typically napkins balled up-, some carefully place their item, some hover the item over and then drop, others simply scrape items off of something like a plate- in the case of reusable dishes-, and some simply throw or place in the item as they walk by (seemingly paying no attention to the waste at all).
This watching over time is interesting as people come and go and the trash slowly builds. It is interesting to see humans living and passing by creating more and more waste as time goes by. Additionally, although intuitive and obvious, it is interesting watching in this way because in this experiment, the more people the more waste, just like in life on a larger scale.
-Lauren Cantin