Trashbusters in Action!

A big thank you to everyone who came to support our event today at Renaissance Coffee on Burnaby Mountain!

We had a great turnout; and hopefully, we had were able to some great minds thinking about the benefits, how-to’s and implementation of composting!

Knowing that Renaissance’s peak hours are from 12-2, we set up our station just as the rush begin: with 4 bins each labelled “Compost it,” “Rescue it,” “Recycle it,” and “Trash it” we began to attract quite a crowd. We began educating and questionning both SFU faculty and students alike about composting, and engaged customers in the process of separating their food and packaging. Not only were they enthused, but they also really appreciated the learning! Even if people were not eating, they came over to see our display and to ask more the “ins and outs” of composting.

We found that many people, while aware of the benefits of composting, do not in fact do it themselves. There seems to be a lack of motivation due to the sheer fact that people “Didn’t know how!” to do it.

Here were some of our key findings:

-35/40 participants agreed that SFU should have their own composting facility. (The remaining 5 argued that contamination would be a problem, or that the startup costs of education and equipment may outweigh the benefits – both very valuable and considerable points for Trashbusters to consider in our feasibility).

-34/40 would be more than willing to support a composting program at SFU (ie. separating their food waste into labeled bins as we had displayed).

-32/40 said that, if it was made easy and economical, they would have their own composting system at home. (8 people mentioned that they lived in a rented condo, and it would be up to their  landlord to make that desicion). (**idea for Trashbusters: small composting sites that tenants can keep inside their apartment or condo)

-We realized the “Rescue it” plan (ie. saving perfectly good cans, boxes and perishables — that would otherwise be tossed in the garbage and headed for our landfills – and redirecting it to hungry people) did not generate enough food to make this program feasible for just the students and faculty to employ at SFU.

-The most commonly composted item was… NAPKINS! Yes, napkins! So many participants were unaware that paper napkins could be composted, that we created quite a stir of conversation around what other kinds of unsuspecting goods could also  be composted! Because we were at a coffee shop, we also collected a lot of teabags.

While Parminder, the coffee shop’s owner, could not be there today, we will be interviewing him later in the week to discuss his opinions and attitudes toward a composting system at Renaissance, and throughout SFU! Stay tuned for pictures, and if you missed out on the festivities today, send us your questions!

A Solutions Pilot at Renaissance

Let’s dish out the most important details first:

What: Come see our Food Rescue iniative in action! We will be trying to carry out our food rescue solution as a pilot, and seeing first hand what the process entails.

When: Tuesday, July21st, 2009 at 1:00pm

Where: Renaissance Coffee, located at Cornerstone

Who: Everyone! Stop by if you’re on campus, or feel free to stop in just to view the action!

How we got here

The Trashbusters had to consider several things upon choosing the solution pilot location. For example, we had to find a location that had an adequate exposure to people- we need traffic so that people can see what we are trying to do and what problem we are trying to tackle. However, we had to be careful to ensure that this exposure is no too large, as we would not want to distract customers away from the store or disrupt the flow of the business.

Renaissance Coffee is the perfect pilot store- the small size of the store keeps the project simple, allowing the team to focus on the goals, while the location at The Cornerstone guarantees traffic as it is located right by the bus loop. Not only that, but Renaissance also has a first hand experience with resuable dishware, so we may even get a few answers on our other solution (decreasing food packaging).

Sara contacted Parminder of Renaissance and he has agreed to let us carry out our pilot there on Tuesday afternoon. The Trashbusters have been really lucky to have him allow us to do this and we are really excited! We will be making sure that all the customers that enter the store will be aware of our project, and our goals for implementation. After Tuesday we hope to take away some key points and answers, such as the complexities of separating the materials and the resistance of customers, as well as the feasibility of our solution.

We hope to see you-our viewers, fellow bloggers, environmentalists, professors, friends, family, there on Tuesday! We will try to get some footage on video or some photos so that we can update you all on our progress.