In the 2017-2018 academic year, WPI recycled 23% of all disposables. To get an understanding of the WPI "community", we sent a survey to students and faculty at WPI. We then examined the WPI recycling efforts in 2016 and 2017 using waste audit data collected from WPI's annual waste audit in each respective year. The result of our findings indicated that less than half of the commonly used recyclable materials were properly recycled. Based on our previous findings, we interviewed students at WPI on their opinion on why people do not recycle. As a result of those interviews, we found that a majority of the students believed that carelessness was the main reason. Our research concluded that WPI students' and faculty's carelessness is the primary reason for such underwhelming recycling effort.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Nhan, Kien V.
• Le, Kevin

Subject

• Environment
• Sustainability

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-041418-153250

Keyword

• Recycling (Waste, etc.)
• Sustainability

Advisor

• Beck, Joseph E.

Year

• 2018

Date created

• 2018-04-14

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Rights statement

• In Copyright