8+Science+2+Max's+MSW+Project


 * __How Replacing Paper Towels With Blowdryers Could Reduce MSW on Bissel Campus__**

Link to VoiceThread: []

Bissel Campus produces a lot of municipal solid waste, and my group's goal is to reduce some of this. We have determined that the campus bathrooms, specifically the paper towel waste from people drying their hands, are a large source of waste. Our goal to reduce this trash is to replace the paper towel dispensers with air blowdryers. We believe that if the amount of paper towel dispensers are reduced and replaced with blowdryers, then the amount of municipal solid waste on campus will also be reduced. 1. Scale (provided by Mr. Keilty) 2. Garbage bags for collecting the paper towel waste 3. GPS unit to mark bathroom locations Safety Concerns & Guidelines to follow: 1. Conduct ourselves in a responsible manner at all times: #1 2. Follow written procedure carefully: #2 3. Never work alone: #3 4. The paper towels in the bathrooms might be contaminated with chemicals, so keep hands away from face: #15 1. Gather all materials.
 * Introduction:**
 * Materials:**
 * Procedure:**

2. Determine total amount of bathrooms on Bissel Campus. Approximately 22 bathrooms on Bissel Campus.

3. Collect all paper towel trash from all middle school bathrooms and weigh them once a day for four days.

4. Average the different amounts of waste to get an average daily amount of paper towel waste produced by the whole campus.

5. Determine the amount of paper waste the school could save if we switched to air hand dryers.

Amount of Trash in Bathrooms On Campus Average amount of trash in bathrooms per day= 1.325 lbs Approximate amount of trash from bathrooms per year that could be completely negated=222.6 lbs
 * Data:**
 * || Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 ||
 * Weight Before Blowdryers(lbs) || 0.8 || 1.4 || 1.8 || 1.3 ||
 * Weight After Blowdryers (lbs) || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 ||

Our results show that over the span of our collection days, the amount of paper waste from the campus bathrooms increased over three days, but on the fourth, it decreased a little bit. The average amount of paper towel waste in the bathrooms per day is 1.325 pounds and the approximate amount of paper towel waste Bissel Campus produces per year is 222.6 pounds. With the blowdryers installed, though, the amount of paper waste would be reduced to zero pounds.
 * Analysis:**[[image:8Science2MaxKepley_chart.JPG]]

In our experiment, we proved our hypothesis that said if the amount of paper towel dispensers are reduced and replaced with blowdryers, then the amount of municipal solid waste on campus (especially in the bathrooms) would be reduced. Our solution, installing blowdryers in the bathrooms instead of towel dispensers, would take the amount of current paper towel waste to zero. The current paper towel waste would be completely negated by this solution. An error in our experiment was that we did not collect data at consistent times throughout the collection period. On some days we would collect in the morning, but in others we would collect in the afternoon. If we had collected at the same time every day, then we most likely would have had more precise findings. A challenge we had with our experiment was getting the trash from the bathroom trash cans into our trash bags. Some of the trash cans had lids that complicated the transfer from the can to our bags. Our solution proves to be 100% effective in reducing the municipal solid waste from campus bathrooms; with the blowdryers installed, there would be virtually no more waste from the bathrooms on campus.
 * Conclusion:**