Earth Day Survey UnEarths Attitudes Towards Compost

By: Emma Stanfield, Zachary Devereux, Caroline Schreck, Maia Rodriguez-Choi, and Elizabeth Popescu.

This past Monday Sustainability Action Research’s University Apartment Waste Diversion Team tabled at the UCLA Earth Day Fair.  We had a great table with a sticker survey!  Our survey consisted of four questions that measured an individuals knowledge and experience with composting, and their willingness to participate in composting programs.  We were able to get a lot of participants and good data.  It was also great to interact with the public and spread awareness of our project and composting in general.  Later in the week we lead a conference call with representatives of various housing departments including the grounds, rooms, custodial, and sustainability departments.  This was the first time we had talked directly to many of the various department representatives and were able to update them on the progress our team has made and our next goals.  We learned a lot and were made aware of current problems with the composting programs; for instance, a few residents have apparently begun simply dumping their compostable waste on the floor of apartment trash rooms.  We were also able to garner feedback on our plans for expanding compost programs into more university apartment buildings.  We have another conference call with representatives of Residential Life to discuss the forms of composting education currently in place in the apartments, and how they can be improved.