Exploring Interactions Cycle 1: Ideate

How to overcom(e)post

Noortje Habets 4011430 Gert Pasman & Natalia Romero Herrera

Design goal I noticed that I have seen a lot of people who do not separate their organic waste. Either they do not do it at all, or they have a green waste bin in their garden or garage, but they only use it for garden waste or a lot of food left overs, and not for the normal small amounts of organic waste they have in their kitchen, like fruit or vegetable peels, teabags and eggshells. Since I found a research in which it is proven that younger people (under 35) separate less garbage then older people, I decided to focus on starters. The design goal I am focusing on is: I want starters to feel guilty when not separating their organic waste and to feel good when they do. In the beginning of the project I also stated my design goal as: starters who live in a house with a smaller kitchen. But during my research I found out that the size of the kitchen does not play a big role, since I found starters who do not separate their organic waste but do have a bigger kitchen with space for a second recycle bin. It turned out to be other reasons then just I have a small kitchen. What I want to find out is: - Why do starters not separate their organic waste? o What are the negative and positive aspects to them to do so or not? - What would be a trigger to start separating their organic waste?

Design and research activities To get a better view on the current situation and to explore this situation, I asked a few people (mainly starters) some first basic questions about separating garbage. Questions like: do they separate any garbage at all? Do they have a garden with an organic waste bin? Where do they put their garden waste? It turned out that most people do separate some garbage, like glass and paper. But they do not separate organic waste, unless it is garden waste. Others do not separate any organic waste at all (they only had a balcony). Now that it was proven that starters do not really separate their organic waste, the why question comes up: Why are these people not separating their organic waste? I asked 3 people to participate in a booklet research (see Appendix), age from 23 to 25, who did not separate any organic waste. They all live in The Hague in a house or apartment with a balcony. This is their first house after living in Delft (where they have studied). Two are graduated and working now, one is doing her Master degree in Delft. The booklet was about separating organic waste as a kind of diary. The participants were all girls and 2 of them lived together in a house with 3 people. One had a smaller kitchen; the others had a bigger open kitchen. Both of the kitchens had enough space around the garbage bin to put something else to separate garbage in. All of them separate glass and paper, which are garbage types they can drop in their own street where it will be picked up.

In the booklet they first had to live the way they always do for two days, but they had to write down the different types of organic waste they put in their garbage bin that day. Depending on the time they had, they could pick breakfast, lunch, dinner, in between or all of these. Besides the participants were asked to estimate the weight in kilograms of the organic waste they threw away each day. Every day they had to describe how they felt about this. They could pick different words as not different than usually, guilty, proud, responsible, conscious, obligated, and give a description with this feeling. After these two days of not separating different than usually, the participants were asked to separate their organic waste and actually weigh this separated waste at the end of the day. Again they had to describe how they felt. In the last part of the booklet, the participants were asked if they would change their behavior in separating organic waste after participating in this research. After the days of filling in the booklets were finished, I interviewed one girl about her experiences with this research and her opinion on separating organic waste. The other girl, who was most clear in working in her booklet, I asked questions through email to get some more insights. The questions were about the, in their opinion, negative and positive aspects of separating organic waste, to find out the why-question. Besides I wanted to find out when they would want to separate their organic waste: what should change in their surroundings/situation that will actually make them separate their organic waste.

The girls that lived together only gave short answers in their booklet and only estimated the weight they had, so it could not give me that lot of insights, which is why I interviewed one of them to get to know more about their experience with this research. The other girl gave a detailed description of what she did, how she felt about it and her opinion about separating organic waste. From this I got the most useful insights.

Garbage bins in both houses of the participants

Results The first 2 days of filling in the booklets gave the participants a feeling of how much organic waste they were throwing away. They did not feel guilty, but some were surprised by the amount of organic waste they threw away, especially on the first day. On the first 2 days some of them felt conscious because of engaging with separating organic waste. One mentioned that she was thinking about separating her garbage and knowing that when she was abroad in a less wealthy country, she did separate her garbage, because she saw garbage on the streets everywhere. She was really surprised and also felt guilty on the first day of the second part of the booklet, since she separated 950 grams of organic waste. At the same time she felt conscious, because by seeing this amount of grams, she knew that she could do something about it. On the second day she only had 200 grams, which is why she did not feel guilty. See Appendix for results out of one of the booklets. All of the participants said that they would not immediately start separating organic waste after participating in this research, but probably would when they get a little older and live in a real first house. This is also because they live together with other girls, in a household where they do not separate their organic waste. The most valuable insight was that in their own streets or close by there is no possibility to dispose their organic waste. It would take too much effort to do so. When they would have a garden or a kitchen garden they would all be willing to make and use their own compost. Right now they only have balconies, but using the organic waste for their own purposes sounds attractive to them. The other complain is that, also because the place to dispose the

waste is too far away, in their busy live (especially in the morning, when they have to hurry), it would take too much time and effort to separate the organic waste. If it would be a really easy step to do so, they agreed that they would consider separating their organic waste. Besides they mentioned to be willing to separate their organic waste when the neighborhood, people around them, would do so.

Conclusions What I did not think about in the beginning was that the place of the organic waste depot would also determine whether people separate their organic waste or not. This was a useful insight. What can be concluded about starters and separating their organic waste is that in the bigger cities (like The Hague) there are not enough possibilities to dispose organic waste close to their house. That way it takes too much effort, especially in their busy lives, to do so. This gets less when starters would get a positive effect on their own lives out of separating the organic waste. So the positive effect for the environment is not enough, it is too vague and they do not know what happens with the separated waste. Their balconies do not allow them to put all their organic waste. What I would consider as possible concept directions: - A solution in their kitchen, which makes the step of separating organic waste a lot smaller, without consequences such as having to buy a new garbage bin. - A solution which provides them something they can use their organic waste for on their balcony (for example: using compost for their own plants or using the waste to feed animals) - A social program in which a neighborhood participates in a project together The first two options are more product related. The third option will probably be a service combined with a product, which is most challenging to me.

Neighborhood

Kitchen

Balcony

Deel 1 De bedoeling is dat je gedurende 2 dagen bijhoudt wat voor groen afval je weggooit. Heb je weinig tijd of ben je niet veel thuis? Kies dan 1 van de eetmomenten (meerder mag ook, graag ).

Dag 1
Ik heb vandaag bijgehouden:

o o o o

Ontbijt Lunch Diner Tussendoor

Wat voor groen afval heb je vandaag weggegooid?

Brussel DAG I - ontbijt : eischillen appelschillen (voor de hondjes) bananenschil nasi goreng leftover thee zakjes eischillen beetje tomaat en ui resten eischillen aardappelschillen champignon restjes tomaat en ui restjes doppen van boontjes

o o o o o o

Schillen/ andere resten Eierschalen Bedorven eten/oud Theezakjes Leftovers Overig: .

Heb je enig idee wat het gewicht is van wat je weggegooid hebt? Schat het aantal kg.

500gr

- lunch : - avondeten :

Hoe voel je je na het weggooien de gewone prullenbak ?

van groen afval in

o o o o o o

Niet anders dan normaal Schuldig Verantwoord Trots Bewust Verplicht

situatie afhankelijk ben ik bang.. In Zuid Amerika ging ik er namelijk heel verantwoord mee om doordat je in je omgeving veel afval zag rondslingeren. Als ik in een situatie zou wonen waarbij mijn groente afval voor persoonlijk hergebruik kan worden ingezet, (kippen, tuintje) dan zou ik het veel sneller doen. Ook als het groente afval in mijn straat wordt opgehaald. (dus eigenlijk, hoe makkelijker het voor mij word gemaakt, hoe sneller ik het zou doen)

Toelichting:

Dag 2
Ik heb vandaag bijgehouden:

Deel 2 De bedoeling is dat je naast je vuilnisbak een extra zak/bak neerzet waarin je groen afval scheidt. Aan het eind van de dag weeg jehet totale gewicht van deze zak (die je daarna vervolgens natuurlij k netjes leegt bij de groencontainer).
eischillen theezakjes leftovers (beetje hutspot) veel appelschillen bananen schil avocadoschillen broodrestje

o o o o

Ontbijt Lunch Diner Tussendoor

Wat voor groen afval heb je vandaag weggegooid?

o o o o o o

Schillen/ andere resten Eierschalen Bedorven eten/oud Theezakjes Leftovers koffie Overig: .

Heb je enig idee wat het gewicht is van wat je weggegooid hebt? Schat het aantal kg.

300gr

Hoe voel je je na het weggooien de gewone prullenbak ?

van groen afval in

o o o o o o

Niet anders dan normaal Schuldig Verantwoord Trots Bewust Verplicht

Omdat ik niet veel afval heb voel ik mij niet schuldig, maar ik ben wel bewust van het feit dat als ik elke dag een beetje groente afval heb, dat het best snel kan opstapelen naar een kilo. Dus eigenlijk zou het gewicht niet moeten uitmaken maar de instelling altijd hetzelfde: afval scheiden, dan zit je sowieso goed.

Toelichting:

Dag 1
Ik heb vandaag bijgehouden:

Dag 2
Ik heb vandaag bijgehouden:

o o o o

Ontbijt Lunch Diner Tussendoor

o o o o

Ontbijt Lunch Diner Tussendoor

Wat voor groen afval heb je vandaag weggegooid?

Wat voor groen afval heb je vandaag weggegooid?

o o o o o o

Schillen/ andere resten Eierschalen Bedorven eten/oud Theezakjes Leftovers Overig: .

o o o o o o

Schillen/ andere resten Eierschalen Bedorven eten/oud Theezakjes Leftovers Overig: .

Hoeveel kg groen afval heb je vandaag gescheiden? .. kg

Hoeveel kg groen afval heb je vandaag gescheiden? .. kg

net geen kilo ! 950gr

200gr

Hoe voel je je na het scheiden van het groen afval?

Hoe voel je je na

het scheiden v

an het groen afval?

o o o o o o

Niet anders dan normaal Schuldig Verantwoord Trots Bewust Verplicht

omdat 950gr nog best veel is als het gaat om een dagelijkse hoeveelheid groente afval.. maar ook bewust doordat je er dus ook iets aan kunt doen wat degelijk effect kan hebben.

Toelichting:

Niet anders dan normaal Schuldig Verantwoord Trots Bewust Niet echt een schuldgevoel omdat ik vandaag niet veel afval heb.. ook niet Verplicht trots, want heb gewoon niet veel geToelichting: geten.
maar nog steeds wel bewust van gisteren dat het tot mijn verrassing nog best veel afval kan zijn die je kunt scheiden en voor een goed doeleinde kan gebruiken !

o o o o o o

Denk je dat je, scheiden?

na mee te hebben gedaan

aan

dit onderzoekje, meer/vaker groen afval zal

Zo ja, waarom?

Zo nee, wat weerhoudt je hiervan?

Ik denk het niet, omdat ik nu in een huishouden woon waarin er geen afval gescheiden wordt. Ook wordt er in onze straat geen groen afval opgehaald en daarmee ligt dus de druk heel laag. Helaas kan ik het groente afval zelf ook niet gebruiken voor eigen doeleinde, misschien in een andere situatie zal ik daar wel sneller aan denken. Ik zit ook in een bepaald druk ritme waarin ik s ochtends weini tijd neem voor mijn ontbijt. dus om alles snel weg te gooien is voor mij dan ook het makkelijkst. Als het mij heel makkelijk wordt gemaakt om die ochtenden mijn groenafval te kunnen scheiden dan zou ik dat hoogstwaarschijnlijk wel gaan doen!