| OCR Text |
Show SOLID WASTE AUDIT OF THE OLPIN UNION William J. Chatwin,(David Richerson) Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah Faculty Sponsor David RichersDn Theoretical Framework This project is an example of Community-Based Research where a community partner identifies the need for information and then participates in its discovery. The partner for this project is a student environmental organization seek-ing to implement a recycling program at the Olpin Union. They have been instru-mental in planning the timing of the audit and carrying it out. Another purpose of this project is to increase awareness of solid waste issues in the population who frequent the Union and would utilize the recycling program. Experimental Procedure A solid waste audit seeks to de-termine the magnitude and composition of waste for a specific location and time period. Magnitude includes measure-ment of the mass and estimation of vol-ume. Composition consists of separation into 15 material categories, and then a further distinction of recycling potential. The location and time period are the en-tire Union building over a single day. Results Although there was a failure to measure all waste streams from the Union in a day, sufficient information was gathered to meet the needs of the com-munity partner. Waste was not obtained from the kitchen areas of the cafeteria, nor was there a measure of what is already recycled, bathroom waste was measured for mass but not separated. The data gathered was mixed waste from public spaces and office areas. This was useful to the community partner because these are the sources that will be targeted by the recycling program. Awareness of solid waste issues was increased through coverage of the au-dit in the student newspaper, along with two follow-up stories about the continu-ing efforts. The audit was also refer-enced in legislation passed by student government that provides funding for the recycling program on a trial basis. Spring Update There was also the extension of the UROP sponsorship into the spring semester. The purpose of the renewal is a supplemental audit, to gather the information that was missed in the first iteration. A new proce-dure will more carefully distinguish source streams. Greater emphasis will be place on the overall magnitude of the waste, in contrast to the original audit's focus on composition. This encourages the op-portunity to compare the data obtained in the massive separation, by a more selective sampling method. Likewise, the partnership will shift from the student group to the staff members who will be contributing much more to the audit. |
