7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1)    Banning Styrofoam and non-recyclable plastic cups on campus

a.     There are thousands of non-recyclable cups that are thrown away on campus that end up in landfills and affect the environment in a negative way.

                                               i.     The who: food companies on campus

                                             ii.     The what: changing from non-recyclable products to compostable and recyclable ones

                                           iii.     The why: they are made of harmful materials that take thousands of years to decompose and harm the environment

2)    Testing the hypothesis

a.     Testing the who: this opportunity is something that should be implemented in every campus, because students are usually the ones that are motivated the most to make a change, so starting from campuses will make a great impact. What I will test in here would be how willing the food companies on campus would be to change from non-recyclable products to recyclable ones. I will also investigate if students would approve of this change.

b.    Testing the what: There are many food companies available on campus, including University sponsored ones like Broward dining. Because of this, I wonder: How expensive would I be to make this change? and Who would take care of the expenses, the students? The companies? The University?

c.     Testing the why: There are many studies proving that these products damage the environment but for my hypothesis, I would want to investigate if there is any direct negative impact, right here on campus.

3)    Interviews

a.     Interview #1:

                                               i.     The person being interviewed is a young female in her 20’s. She is a constant Starbuck’s costumer and she approves of making this change. She thinks that with the amount of coffee she gets a week, there’s definitely a lot of cups she throws away that could definitely could’ve been recycled.

b.    Interview #2:

                                               i.     This person is a young male who works at the POD market over the weekends. He says that the change wouldn’t affect him as a worker, since most products at the POD market are either in a can or in a box so they can be recycled. It would affect him as a consumer since he loves getting Chick-Fil-A every other day. He approves of the swap but thinks it’s going to be too hard.

c.     Interview #3:

                                               i.     The person being interviewed is a young man who is studying Wildlife Resources and Conservation. He  carries his reusable bottle everywhere he goes. He really likes the idea of doing the change, but he also thinks that another cool idea would be food companies letting students use their reusable bottles. He thinks that a combination of both ideas could really make an impact.

d.    Interview #4:

                                               i.     The person being interviewed is a young female. She is 100% on board with the change. “I think I’m the most environmental friendly person I know. I have been waiting to bring up this change to the school but I just never had the chance to find the time and go talk to them”

e.     Interview #5:

                                               i.     The person being interviewed is a young female that works at the Wendy’s on campus. She thinks that a change like this would be a great idea. She mentioned that they already changed from plastic straws to plant-based, compostable straws, so they should just do the same thing with the cups.

4)    Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 

a.     From the first interview, I realized that students are indeed aware of how much plastic they use and that they are aware of how wasteful these plastic cups are.

b.     From the second interview, I learned that even though it doesn’t affect every establishment on campus, it still affects a vast majority of the workers since most of them are students.

c.     From the third interview, I learned that there are other options that could be implemented in order to try and solve the same problem. By having different options, it’s possible to create a pros and cons list between options to see which one is the most convenient.

d.     From the fourth interview, I learned that there is some students that are already trying to make a change, they just need time and support in order to build their idea better and be able to deliver it properly to the university.

e.     From the last interview, I learned that there are even workers that are aware of this problem and that change needs to happen.