The UCLA Action Research Teams (ART) program gives students the opportunity to form research teams of 5-7 students that tackle issues of campus sustainability such as energy efficiency, transportation, waste stream management and more. The goal of Action Research Teams is to generate a coalition of student researchers that, together with faculty members and UCLA staff, strive to make UCLA a model campus and national leader in sustainability. A two-quarter (20-week) time frame allows for an in-depth journey that enables a thorough analysis of the research project. The Action Research projects also provide stakeholders with invaluable information that is used to make UCLA more sustainable.
The 2010 Campus Recycling Action Research Team helped Facilities Management switch over to single-stream recycling. UCLA generates about 24,000 tons of waste a year, but much of this can be recycled. The UC’s have also recognized this as a problem and have set waste diversion goals. By 2012, the goal is to divert 75% of all waste from landfills, and 100% by 2020. UCLA is committed to reaching these goals even faster.
Before this ART project, UCLA’s recycling program consisted of bins for mixed paper, bins for white paper, and tri-clusters for plastic bottles, glass bottles, and aluminum cans. These were scattered around campus, not always near each other and not always as conveniently placed as the nearest trash can. It was simply not convenient enough for people to recycle.
Our team’s goal was to assist facilities management and our faculty stakeholders Sustainability Coordinator Nurit Katz, Recycling Coordinator Chris Gallego and Director of Design and Project Management Jerry Markham, in dramatically improving the recycling programs on campus, both indoors and outdoors. Our team’s goal was twofold: we had to find out what could be improved, and then we had to implement changes. In order to determine where improvements were needed, our team did research on other campuses recycling programs and learned more about the recycling process in general, including taking trips to facilities that sort recyclables. We surveyed more than 750 students, faculty, and staff at UCLA to gauge what could be improved and what kind of labeling would be most effective, and familiarized ourselves intimately with the current system by mapping out the locations of all trash bins and various recycling bins on campus. The results of our research had a significant influence on the direction and design of the new program.
On Earth Day the new single-stream recycling program was launched. Our team helped with the entire process, including the increase in the number of bins available, the placement of recycling bins (trying to establish a 1 to 1 ratio of trash to recycling), and new labels to simplify the recycling process.
After the Earth Day rollout our team focused on making sure people knew about the changes and to address whether the new program was successfully increasing recycling on campus. Therefore we focused on education and outreach and did a preliminary audit of the new program we helped to bring to UCLA.