8+Science+3+Gary's+MSW+Project

The Efficiency Of CCDS Recycling March 2nd, 2010
 * http://ccds.ed.voicethread.com/share/949827/

Introduction:**

For my MSW project i decided to to do something that involved recycling. Recycling is when materials of any sort like: plastic bottles, paper, etc. are reused to make new products. This helps to keep perfectly reusable materials from being wasted and also filling up the landfills. After walking through campus I decided to devise an experiment which involved the efficiency in which bottles are recycled. The purpose of our experiment is to determine how efficently the CCDS Middle School recycles its plastic bottles. If the efficiency of the recycling is poor, we will try to find a solution to improve the recycling. The hypothesis for this experiment is if the students and the faculty is educated on how to recycle properly, then the efficiency of the recycled bottles will improve.


 * Materials:**
 * gloves- to keep all of the germs and fluids from coming into contact with our hand
 * hand counters- to make sure that we count the bottles and to make sure our data is correct
 * recycle bins 1-8- the sources where we get our data (bottles)
 * clipboard- to help right with more ease and so that we can read our own hand writing so we do not mess up our data

fluids getting in our eyes- guideline # 27 sickness from the fluids- guideline # 15
 * Safety Risks:**


 * Procedure:**
 * 1) We will spilt our group of 8 people into 4 groups of 2
 * 2) each group will go to two recycling bin that they are assigned to(Group 1: dome/sklut entrance, outside lunchroom where old powerrade)
 * 3) Take out all the bottles
 * 4) count all of the recycled bottles in the recycle bins
 * 5) then count how many bottles have caps on them, and how many do not, and how many bottles contain fluid
 * 6) record the data with the other groups
 * 7) walk back to classroom and put all of our information together
 * 8) determine the percentages and the efficeincy of CCDS recycling
 * 9) educate CCDS middle school by telling the students to recycle properly and to make sure to take the cap off (announcements)
 * 10) two to 3 days later collect data just like the first time (how many bottles have caps and how many do not, and how many contain fluid)
 * 11) record the data with the other groups
 * 12) compare the data and see if there are any positive or negative changes
 * 13) Propose a solution to improve the efficiency of recycling

Dependent Variable: How many bottle are properly recycled without caps Independent Variable: amount of education (announcements) Control Group: the first data collection (before the announcement) Experimental Group: the second data collection (after the announcement)

Data Tables

Collection 1


 * || Total bottles || bottles w/ caps || % of cap bottles || bottles w/ fluid || % of fluid bottles || % of fluid + % caps ||
 * Group 1 || 12 || 6 || 50% || 1 || 8% || 58% ||
 * Group 2 || 117 || 18 || 10% || 7 || 6% || 21% ||
 * Group 3 || 68 || 16 || 24% || 3 || 4% || 28% ||
 * Group 4 || 5 || 2 || 40% || 0 || 0% || 40% ||
 * Total( all groups) || 202 || 42 || 21% || 11 || 5% || 26% ||

Collection 2


 * || Total bottles || bottles w/ caps || % of cap bottles || bottles w/ fluid || % of fluid bottles || % of fluid + % caps ||
 * Group 1 || 72 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Group 2 || 0 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Group 3 || 33 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Group 4 || 53 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * Total( all groups) || 158 ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

Total of all collections before announcement


 * || Bottles || of cap botls || % of cap botls || of botls w/ fluid || % of fld bottles || % of fld + btls ||
 * Total(before anounce) || 475 || 52 || 11% || 15 || 3% || 14% ||

Collection One (after announcement)
 * || Total Bottles || Bottles w/ Caps || % of Cap Bottles || Bottles w/ fluid || % of Fluid Bottles || % of Caps + % of Bottles ||  ||
 * Group 1 || 50 || 12 || 24% || 1 || 2% || 26% ||  ||
 * Group 2 || 70 || 3 || 4% || 1 || 1% || 6% ||  ||
 * Group 3 || 22 || 3 || 13% || 0 || 0% || 13% ||  ||
 * Group 4 || 38 || 5 || 13% || 0 || 0% || 13% ||  ||
 * Total || 180 || 23 || 13% || 2 || 1% || 14% ||  ||

Collection Two (after announcement) Total of Collections after announcement
 * || Total Bottles || Bottles w/ Caps || % of Cap Bottles || Bottles w/ fluid || % of Fluid Bottles || % of Caps + % of Bottles ||  ||
 * Group 1 || 58 || 2 || 3% || 0 || 0% || 3% ||  ||
 * Group 2 || 18 || 2 || 11% || 0 || 0% || 11% ||  ||
 * Group 3 || 37 || 7 || 19% || 0 || 0% || 19% ||  ||
 * Group 4 || 74 || 6 || 8% || 0 || 0% || 8% ||  ||
 * Total || 187 || 17 || 9% || 0 || 0% || 9% ||  ||
 * || Bottles || # of cap botls || % of cap botls || # of botls w/ fluid || % of fld bottles || % of fld + btls ||
 * Total(before anounce) ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||

** Analysis: **
http://ccds.ed.voicethread.com/share/949827/

One trend that I noticed was that the amount of bottles that had caps on them did not increase or decrease, but it just stayed the same. The bottles that contained fluid did happen to decrease, and this overall improved how efficiently the bottles are recycled.


 * Conclusion:**

Our hypothesis was supported in this experiment because after we had made our announcement, which was our form of education, there was an improvement in the efficiency of our recycling. One human error was that it was hard getting all the group members together at one time and compare all our data. The one challenge we had when collecting our data was counting our data correctly, because if we did not it could alter the results of our experiment. A solution to this problem is a pencil cup that will be attached to the side of the recycling bin, so that all caps can be thrown in the cup and not the recycling bin.