Research and Design Activities
• Recruiting
• Project planning and management
• Tool creation (graphic design)
• Analysis
• Project planning and management
• Tool creation (graphic design)
• Analysis
Collaborators
Yang M.F. Chang: procurement, quantitative analysis, recruitment, facilitation
Kelsey Vitullo: documentarian, copywriting, recruitment, facilitation
Kelsey Vitullo: documentarian, copywriting, recruitment, facilitation
Project Scope
Duration: February – April 2019
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Collaborative MFA student project
Professor: Dr. Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Collaborative MFA student project
Professor: Dr. Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders
The problem
Around the globe, single-use disposable products like beverage containers, expanded polystyrene packaging, and plastic films are a significant source of terrestrial, airborne, and marine litter. Locally, fast-food takeout containers, soda bottles, and beer cans are a blight on Ohio State's beautiful campus, and pose a persistent maintenance challenge for facilities staff.
Unfortunately, many of the items discarded on campus are not accepted by local recycling services.
Research Question
My colleagues and I established the following research question to guide our efforts: how can a behavior intervention encourage people (consumers at Ohio State) to eliminate waste before it becomes a problem that needs to be managed?
We wanted to know if we could encourage people to decrease their use of single-use-disposable products by using durable, reusable products instead.
With the guidance of Dr. Sanders, we designed a study to explore these ideas. We recruited approximately 20 participants and asked them to document the trash they generate in a pocket-sized journal for two weeks. We also gave them a reusable spork as a thank-you gift for participating in the study. We wanted to learn if the the journal activity and the spork would encourage participants to use fewer disposable products in favor of reusable alternatives.
We designed the journal to collect data about trash people generated at meal times. We pilot-tested the journal with classmates and family members to ensure it was easy to use and carry.
To analyze the results, Yang, Kelsey, and I photographed and printed every page from every journal we collected. We hung them on long sheets of kraft paper in the hallway near our classroom to get a birds-eye-view of the data.
We collected both quantitative and qualitative data from the journals. Due to IRB constraints, I cannot share the results, but can say the overall method and tools showed promise for achieving our goals.