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

=** The Mis-Recycled Bottle Project **=

Lucie Oken Section 8-3 3/4/10

Link to our VoiceThread: http://ccds.ed.voicethread.com/share/949827/


 * I. Introduction:** Many bottles being recycled around the campus are being recycled incorrectly. Many bottles still have caps on them and fluid inside them. The caps on bottles are a different type of plastic that cannot be recycled, and they should be thrown away. Some bottles still have fluid inside th__e__m, which makes it harder to recycle them. Students need to remember to recycle their bottles without caps or fluid. The purpose of our experiment was to see if an announcement reminding people to correctly recycle their bottles without fluid or caps would decrease the percent of bottles put in the recycling with caps and/or fluid. Our hypothesis is if the amount of education about properly recycling bottles increases (the announcement), then the number of bottles recycled incorrectly will decrease.


 * III. Materials:**
 * Clip board
 * Hand Counter
 * Recyle Bins
 * Gloves


 * Safety Risks:**
 * Sickness from fluids
 * Fluids in your eyes

1) Split into 4 groups of 2. (Group 1: dome/Sklut, old powerade machine; Group 2: inside cafeteria, outside gym; Group 3: 7th 8th grade courtyard, Rea Hall and Library; Group 4:Science Building courtyard, tennis courts) 2) Go to assigned recycle bins and prepare to collect data. 3) Take all plastic bottles out of the bin and count them all. 4) Count how many bottles have caps on them, and how many bottles do not have caps on them. Record data. 5) Use data to find the percentage of bottles that have caps and bottles that do not have caps, and the bottles that still have fluid in them. 6) Combine data with other groups to get data for the whole school. 7) Put out an announcement on how to properly recycle bottles without caps or fluid. 8) 2-3 days after the announcement, repeat steps 1-6 and record data. 9) After data is collected, then propose solution to the problem of bottles being recycled with caps on them and with fluid still in them.
 * III. Procedure**


 * Independent Variable:** amount of education about bottles being properly recycled without caps and fluid (the announcement)
 * Dependent Variable:** amount of bottles properly recycled


 * Control Group:** the first data collection (before the announcement)
 * Experimental Group:** the second data collection (after the announcement)

=IV. Data=


 * Collection One (before announcement)**


 * || 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 Two (before announcement)**


 * || Total bottles || bottles w/ caps || % of cap bottles || bottles w/ fluid || % of fluid bottles || % of fluid + % caps ||
 * Group 1 || 105 || 9 || 9% || 2 || 2% || 10% ||
 * Group 2 || 53 || 3 || 6% || 1 || 2% || 8% ||
 * Group 3 || 67 || 4 || 6% || 1 || 1% || 7% ||
 * Group 4 || 48 || 1 || 2% || 0 || 0% || 2% ||
 * Total( all groups) || 273 || 17 || 6% || 4 || 1% || 8% ||


 * 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 announcement) || 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 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% ||  ||
 * Total of Collections after announcement**
 * || Bottles || # of cap botls || % of cap botls || # of botls w/ fluid || % of fld bottles || % of fld + btls ||
 * Total(before announcement) || 367 || 40 || 11% || 2 || 1% || 11% ||
 * Total(before announcement) || 367 || 40 || 11% || 2 || 1% || 11% ||

=**V. Analysis**=



====One trend that our graph shows is that the number of bottles recycled with caps did not change before and after the announcement. The percent of bottles with caps was 11% before the announcement, and after the announcement. Another trend showed in our graph is that the percent of bottles recycled with fluid in them decreased after the announcement. Before the announcement, the percent of bottles with fluid was 3%. Then after the announcement was made the percent of bottles with fluid decreased down to 1%. The fact that the total percent of bottles recycled with fluid and caps decreased from 14% to 11% after the announcement is also a trend.==== = = =VI. **Conclusion**= Our hypothesis was supported. Our hypothesis was if the amount of education about properly recycling bottles increases (the announcement), then the number of bottles recycled incorrectly will decrease. The percentage of bottles recycled with caps on them and fluid inside before we made the announcement was 14%. The percentage of bottles recycled with caps and fluid after we made the announcement was 11%. The percentage of bottles incorrectly recycled decreased, and this supports our hypothesis. A human error that could have occurred in our experiment would be that we could have miscounted when we were counting bottles from the recycling bins. An experimental error we made was that we did not specify how much fluid had to be in a bottle to have it counted as a bottle with fluid in it, because sometimes the bottles would have tiny remnants of the drink in them. Also another experimental error was that we didn’t specify what to do if there was just a cap by itself in the recycling bin, not attached to a bottle. We did not face many challenges collecting data. We had enough people to get around to all the recycling bins in the school; however, it was hard for the group to collect data all at once. We used many different study halls and lunch periods to get all of our data together. After totaling all of the numbers and looking at the data, our proposal is to nail a metal cup near or on the recycling bin for students to place their caps in. There are already many signs, and we think one more reminder would be the solution to help students properly recycle their bottles by pouring out the fluid and placing the caps in the metal cup.