8+Science+4+Jill's+MSW+Project

=Cost-Benefit Analysis of Reusable Cups Over Disposable Cups=

March 4, 2010
[|Voicethread]

To help enhance the eighth grade environmental science course, the class had been asked to preform an experiment based on MSW, or Municipal Solid Waste. The task was to find a place MSW was generated at the school, then come up with an experiment on how to improve the situation and then pitch the idea to the school's administrators. The purpose of this experiment in particular was to preform a cost-benefit analysis of reusable cups over the disposable cups currently used by the school. The belief held by this experiment is that reusable cups would be more financially frugal than the disposable ones, so that if we replaced the disposable cups in the cafeteria with reusable ones, the school would save money.
 * I. Introduction:

****II. Materials:**
 * Information
 * Computer

Safety guidelines:
 * Conduct yourself in a responsible manner at all times

1. Gather information by emailing kitchen staff and going to the cafeteria and asking directly 2. Cost-benifit analysis to see which is more financially frugal -- disposable or reusable cups -- and when exactly the school starts to see the benefit of one over the other 3. Organize information into a data table and a graph 4. If reusable cups are more financially frugal, appeal to school to switch from disposable to reusable cups
 * III. Procedure:**
 * The amount of cups in a tube in the cup dispenser
 * The amount of cups in a case ordered by the school
 * The amount of cases of disposable cups bought per week
 * The cost of a case of cups -- both reusable and disposable
 * The overall cost to the school in a year -- both types of cups
 * The number of cases bought in the first year
 * The number of cases bought each following year
 * The number of reusable cups the school would need to meet its needs

Independent variable: type of cup Dependent variable: cost


 * IV. Data**
 * || Reusable || Disposable ||
 * Amount of cups in a tube || N/A || 80 ||
 * Amount of cups in a case || 72 || 2000 ||
 * # of cases per week || N/A || 1 ||
 * Cost per case || $90 || $95.57 ||
 * Cups sold per day || N/A || 400 ||
 * Cost to school in 1 year || $630 || $3440.52 ||
 * # of cases bought (1st year) || 7 || 36 ||
 * # of cases bought following year || 0 || 36 ||


 * V. Analysis**



The graph shows that the overall cost of disposable cups goes up over the year and reaches well above $3,000, while the overall cost of reusable cups stays steady at $630.


 * VI. Conclusion**

The hypothesis was supported. It stated that reusable cups would be more cost beneficial to the school, and this proved to be correct -- the school could save $2810.52 in the first year alone by switching to reusable cups. Their were no human nor experimental errors, though there were few ways the lab could have been improved. The 400 cups sold in a day is most likely an average; instead the experiment could have been run so that it used day-to-day cup sales, which would not always be exactly 400. The experiment also could have included information on reusable cup life and hygiene concerns, along with looking at how the school would wash the cups. There were a few challenges collecting data; staff did not always email back quickly and were not always available to talk to. Overall, though, it can be proposed from the information that the school should buy reusable cups in order to save money, which they can then use on other items.