Recycling By Amber Kirley & Colby Stohr

Recycling in Monroe County  Everybody in the county has been required to recycle since 1992  There is curb-side pick-up and drop off centers for recycling  unty.gov/des- solidwaste.php unty.gov/des- solidwaste.php unty.gov/des- solidwaste.php

What is required to be Recycled in Monroe County?  Residents are required to recycle the following things: steel, aluminum, clear, brown, and green glass, numbers 1 and 2 plastics, paper, newspapers, magazines, corrugated cardboard, and large appliances  Businesses, Institutions and Industries have to recycle the things above if it applies along with corrugated cardboard and high-grade office paper 

What else can be Recycled in Monroe County?  Electronics (computers and televisions for example  Places that take these things: Rochester Computer Recycling and Recovery, Maven Technologies, and Sunnking Inc.  electronicsrecycling.php electronicsrecycling.php electronicsrecycling.php

Recycling in Thompson Hall  How many students in Thompson Hall recycle?  What is being recycled? Are there things that are not being recycled that should be?  Are the custodians that take care of our recycling well informed about what should and shouldn’t be recycled?  Are students well informed about recycling?

Hypothesis  We thought that students need more education on recycling  75% of our building recycles and over half are girls  Our custodians throw things away that should be recycled

Methods Used  Counted recycling bins throughout the building and kept track of girls and guys sections separately  The next day we interviewed the custodian that took care of the recycling bins

Why would we choose to do this?  We thought it would be a good idea to see how much students know about recycling because before we took environmental science we had no idea about all of the things that could be recycled  Also to figure out how our custodians throw in the trash that could be recycled. By that we could tell if they needed to be educated on recycling or if their bosses were wrong

Thompson Hall Recycling Percentages  2 nd Floor Girls- 1 st Section 10/11= 91% Girls- 2 nd Section 8/11= 73% Guys- 3 rd Section 4/11= 36% Girls- 4 th Section 9/10= 90%  3 rd Floor Girls- 1 st Section 11/12 = 92% Guys- 2 nd Section 2/11 = 18% Girls- 3 rd Section 6/12 = 50% Guys- 4 th Section 6/10= 60%

Recycling Percentages Guys vs. Girls  Girls: Average: 79.2% per week  Guys: Average: 38% per week *Girls tend to be more conscious about recycling then guys.

Interview 1) What are you required to recycle from the dorms? Paper, Plastic, Glass 2) Is there anything you are not required to accept as recyclables? Anything that has once contained food. ex: Pizza boxes, paper plates, plastic plates from the union, styrofoam containers and paper from Trax, plastic silverware. 3) What do you see the most of that students put in their recycling bins (Both recyclable and not)? Water bottles, sandwich baggies, plastic plates, styrofoam containers, cottonballs, plastic silverware.

Interview (cont) 4) Does the amount of recyclables vary from week to week? No, we are steady with a lot of recyclables each week. Approximately 9 bags per week (3 for paper, 3 for plastic, 3 for glass) 5) Do you see a difference in how much girls recycle each week compared to how much guys recycle per week? Girls are more knowledgeable and know what to recycle while they recycle more of it. Guys tend to be more clueless and recycle whatever and don’t always recycle. 6) How much do you personally know about recycling? Do you know about the Monroe County Recycling Policy? Knows what she can and cannot recycle on campus and in her home. Orleans County deals with different policies than Monroe County, As for the campus policy there are pickier rules because we are a college campus and our recycling policy comes from the State not the county.

Interview (cont) 7) Do you pick up recycling in any other building for us to compare Thompson with? If so how does it vary? No, the only recycling picked up is from Thompson. From earlier labs we do know that each building and most separate rooms contain both a trash can and a recycling bin. 8) How much do you recycle at home? Recycle about the same amount as the students in Thompson Hall. There are only 2 people living at home. Same rules apply…. Paper, plastic, glass is all that can be recyled. 9) Do you believe that recycling helps our earth? “Yes, I truly do.”

Interview (cont) 10) In your opinion how much do you think students know about what they can and cannot recycle? 50/50. From the recycling picked up among the students of Thompson Hall some are really conscious and others don’t seem to care. Some educating may be needed.

Conclusions 1) Girls vs. Guys 1) Girls vs. Guys *Girls care a lot more….guys have some learning to do *They will throw away recyclables and put trash in the recycling bins. 2) More education needs to be given to students and faculty. * Some student and faculty simply do not know what to recycle so they just don’t or they recycle the wrong things. 3) Recycling bins need to be accessible and known. *Some people do not notice the recycling bins are there or they cannot find recycling bins when needed.

Need more information…  To draw further conclusions we could do a survey of both an academic building, a dorm, and a cafeteria on campus.  The girl to guy ratio within Thompson Hall is uneven. There are 5 girls hall while only 3 guys halls.  For more information we could interview a couple different janitors throughout Thompson instead of just one.

Literature Cited  solidwaste.php solidwaste.php solidwaste.php  electronicsrecycling.php electronicsrecycling.php electronicsrecycling.php