Recycling in New York City

1. Recycling in New York City David Shulman & Mike Bukhin User-Centered DesignAssignment # 7 March 27, 2006

2. Initial Project Goals • Provide a brief overview and analysis of New York City’s recycling program • Determine public citizens’ recycling habits • Determine what about the system *works* and what can be *improved* • Recommend improvements to facilitate and increase recycling • Review the clarity of NYC’s recycling program • Research users’ recycling process — or lack thereof • Study users’ motivation for recycling — or lack thereof • Determine ways to improve the program, and improve recycling habits Can these be recycled?

3. Areas of Inquiry • User’s apartment space Is it conducive to keeping recyclables? Where does tenant keep recyclables? • User’s attitude toward recycling If performed, is it done out of environmental concern, civic duty, other? If it isn’t performed, why not? • The user’s recycling process in respect to His/her building’s rules New York City’s rules Will I be fined if I don’t recycle this?

4. Proposed Research Methods • Charts (that we will create) for users to document what they do and don’t recycle, and their motivations for doing so • In-home ethnographic observations (in the form of demonstrations) and interviews • Online research and interview with New York City recycling officials • Shadowing random citizens as they are placing their trash/recyclables on the street 3/12/06, 12:12pm: I recycled the box and the tea bag wrapper.

5. Actual Research Methods I. Recycling DiaryTo track our subjects’ recycling habits, we created a diary for the subjects to use to document the items they recycled or threw in the trash, and their reasons for doing one or the other. We listed the major recyclable materials collected in New York City, including: paper (print, direct mail), plastic (bags, containers), aluminum (cans, foil), steel, glass and styrofoam. We asked them to list any other items they recycled (that weren’t on our list), as well as what, if any actions they took prior to recycling. For instance, if a bottle of Coke was being recycled, did the subject wash out the bottle, throw out the cap, remove the labeling, etc?

6. Actual Research Methods II. One-On-One Interviews Once the subjects completed their diaries, we followed up with one-on-one interviews. While the diaries provided valuable day-to-day insights, the interviews gave turned out to be much more valuable: this is where we realized that our subjects do recycle; they just aren’t convinced what they are recycling should or shouldn’t be recycled (and the same goes for much of what they throw in the trash).

7. Actual Research Methods III. Online Research Since our focus for this project is recycling in NYC, we did a lot of online research on sites either hosted by or related to the City of New York. We researched thoroughly the Department of Sanitation’s Web site, including: Homepage http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/home/home.shtmlRequesting Literature from the Sitehttp://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/contact/requests_decal.shtml#publicationsWaste Prevention & Recycling Reports http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/recycling/waste_reports.shtml

8. Research Subjects • 10 people took part in Round 1 of our research • The average age of the subjects was 34.5 years old • All subjects have a B.A.; 60% have a post-graduate degree • Most subjects recycle to help the environment; a few do so because it’s the law Jason Z. Anna W. Fernanda C.

9. Assumptions • People in our age range (20s-30s) are *good* recyclers; they care about the environment and will do what’s necessary to help • In general, people understand what should be recycled, though there is some general confusion about many items • The city does a reasonable job explaining what’s eligible to be recycled; that said, there’s probably room for improvement • People are space constrained; while they would like to recycle as much as possible, most NYC residents don’t have the space to keep everything in their homes until recycling day

10. What We Learned Educated individuals living in an urban environment tend to be socially responsible “Recycling is going out of your way to do the right thing.”

11. What We Learned There are two disparate populations that need to be treated differently. Those who don’t recycle at all Those who recycle but could do it more efficiently and effectively

12. What We Learned There is confusion about the rules, a disconnect in the process and a misperception regarding efficacy. “I have no idea if New York City’s trash is being recycled, and if one bottle cap will break the recycling machine.”

13. What We Learned People allow their assumptions and misconceptions to dictate recycling rules “If I’m not sure, it gets thrown out.”

17. Design Implications One thing became quite clear early on: no one seemed to know if what he/she was recycling was eligible to be recycled. People ASSUMED that what they recycled was eligible, but no one gave a definitive “yes, I’m absolutely 100% sure this can be recycled.” This uncertainty is driving our design concepts. After all, you might be throwing trash into the recycling section, and recyclables into the trash.

18. Potential Design Solutions • To integrate the options for recycling onto the item in question (i.e. A sticker on a Coke bottle that says something like: Bottle Recyclable. Please discard cap.) • To consider a system that provides quick, clear and unequivocal answers to the “can this be recycled?” question • Redesign NYC recycling chart to be more specific. Currently, the signage that exists is quite vague. For example, paper and cardboard can be recycled, except when it’s “heavy soiled.” Who decides what’s heavily soiled? How can those in the community know for sure? What happens if they decide to recycle something that’s later deemed too soiled? What happens? After all, which of these can and can’t be recycled? And why? Or why not?