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

Brook Vann 8-2 3-2-10 **__Bus Recycling __**

I. **Introduction:** The way that this project was started was when Mr. Keilty put two cups in watery soil to see if they would biodegrade. Mr. Keilty and Miss Walthall wanted the entire 8th grade to come up with a project to help the Country day community reduce its municipal solid waste. The purpose of this experiment is to manage our waste in a more sustainable way. If the municipal solid waste on our buses was measured, then there will be more recyclables than trash on our buses.

II. **Materials: ** //Safety Concerns and Precautions: // //Safety Guideline Numbers://
 * trash bags for the Christ Church bus, shuttle, and sports bus in the mornings and afternoons (5 bags per day for 3 days)
 * scale
 * school laptops with Microsoft Excel software
 * goggles
 * rubber gloves
 * sharp objects on can tops
 * germs in fluids
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">broken glass
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">jagged edges on cans
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<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">III. **Procedure:** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> //Experimental Group//-placement, availability of recycling bins //Control Group//-trash //Dependent Variable//-trash //Independent Variable//-recyclables
 * 1) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Contact Sheila Forbis and Ron Varner
 * 2) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Ask where the bus drivers dump their trash and how often the trash is dumped
 * 3) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Go to the bus yard and the gravel area beside the tennis courts to collect trash
 * 4) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Collect trash for 3 days for the shuttle, sports bus(Mr. Keilty's bus), and the Christ Church bus in the mornings and afternoons
 * 5) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Bring to school and put it in Mr. K's room
 * 6) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sort recyclables using goggles and gloves
 * 7) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Weigh recyclables
 * 8) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Weigh trash without the recyclables
 * 9) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Using the school laptops/ excel make a graph for the trash and recyclables on the shuttle in the morning and afternoon, sports, and Christ Church bus
 * 10) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Compare
 * 11) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Decide if it is best to buy recycling bins or have bus drivers sort recyclables and put in recycling bin on campus
 * 12) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Make sure a recycling bin is nearby in order to dump recyclables

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">IV. **Data:**
 * = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Dates of Collection ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">PM Shuttle recyclable mass(grams) ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">AM Christ Church bus recyclable mass (grams) ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sports bus recyclable mass (grams) ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Total Bus Recylables mass (grams) ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Trash mass (grams) ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Total MSW mass (grams) ||
 * = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2/17/2010 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1.4 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">8.1 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">9.5 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">97 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">106.5 ||
 * = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2/18/2010 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">57.2 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0.2 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">57.4 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">42.9 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">127.1 ||
 * = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2/19/2010 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0.9 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1.6 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0.2 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2.7 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0.7 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">3.4 ||
 * =  ||=   ||=   ||=   ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">23.2 ||= <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">46.86666667 ||=   ||

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">V. **Analysis:** What trends does your graph show? My graphs show that for each day about one-third of the trash is recyclables which shows that recycling is needed on buses. On some days there is not much municipal solid waste, but most of the municipal solid waste could be recycled. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 169%;">

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">

VI. **Conclusion:** My hypothesis was not supported because on the average day two thirds of the municipal solid waste would be non-recyclable, and one third would be recyclable, only on one day was the amount of recyclables more than the amount of trash. Some problems with the experiment was that the amount of trash varied a lot between days and buses causing the results to be inconsistent, this problem was experimental. Another problem is that we did not collect the data for long enough, so the data may not be <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">completely accurate, this problem is experimental. A problem with our experiment was that the amount of trash on the buses varied between days. One day there would be a significant amount of trash and the next day there would not be any trash at all, this problem is experimental. A challenge that our group faced was remembering to collect data. As a result of that problem we had to make adjustments in our procedure and data tables because sometimes group members would forget to pick up the bag of trash. Another challenge that our group faced was only two group members rode the buses making it hard to collect data from a lot of buses. From what our data tells us a recycling bin is needed on the buses because the amount of recyclables thrown away each day. We need to start putting recycling bins of the Charlotte Country Day buses to reduce the amount of municipal solid waste that CCDS produces each day. The problem with putting a recycling bin on the buses is there is not much room because of the position and location of some of the trash cans, but that can easily be fixed.

​ <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Link to Brook, Ashley, and Morgan's Voicethread:** http://voicethread.com/share/949689/