They did what?!

After traveling to a local coffee shop, I observed various reactions from patrons who observed our efforts to increase recycling within the confines of the coffee shop itself. It was very interesting to note that while many customers noticed the box that we had placed by the trashcan, they didn’t exactly make use of it. I watched as many people read the box, looked into the hole, in efforts to see if anyone else had participated, and then throw their trash away in the garbage can. This may in fact have to do with our very detailed requests of what should be placed in the box. We had originally asked patrons to dispose of straw wrappers and sugar packets, not realizing that during the colder seasons there would be less of a need for straws. (In later trials we decided to add napkins as well.)

Before we sat down, to watch what people would do, we had asked the employees of the coffee shop if it were ok to place the box in their stores for observational purposes. After they inquired what its purpose was, they graciously allowed us to conduct our little experiment. We noticed that when these employees later had some “trash” of their own, they utilized the box, after being made aware of what its actual purpose was. This made me believe that if we vocally announced our efforts to conserve even the smallest of recyclable goods, more people would be inclined to participate. Out of the 20-25 customers that we watched most of them acknowledged the box, yet many didn’t use it. The few who did notice it, made a conscious effort to dispose of the recyclable materials in the box instead of using the regular trashcan.

After simply observing the actions of people who used to coffee shop, we started talking to people, asking if we had made the public more aware of our conservation efforts, would it have sparked more of a reaction. The general consensus was yes.
Its important to realize that change can not be made without observation, and while looking at how people acted in public, it was easy to see that people don’t go out of their way to look for recycling opportunities. I believe this has to do with the fact that public restaurants and coffee shops don’t provide the right materials for recycling, Even though we are all aware that this could help our environment in many ways no one is really taking a stand and trying to make a more global difference. We are all aware of recycling when it comes to our own homes why not implement it in public areas as well, increasing the recycling efforts all over? Even if every coffee shop placed recycling receptacles near their trash bins, even more paper goods would be able to be recycled and reused, helping our society and most importantly our environment.

Here is a video of one customer during our research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm96b8GeuEI