Evaluation of the effectiveness of different interventions on reducing recycling contamination in multi-family buildings in Vancouver

Recycle BC, a not-for-profit organization responsible for British Columbias packaging and paper products recycling is conducting a pilot project on reducing recycling contamination (ie. wrongly-placed recyclable and non-recyclable materials in different recycling streams) in multi-family buildings (eg. apartments, townhouses). The goal is to determine which intervention will cause multi-family building residents to reduce their recycling contamination. Some of the interventions will include changing the appearance of the recycling carts, increasing signage in the recycling areas, and giving weekly feedback in the form of a score-card. Recycle BC will benefit from this project by finding the most cost-effective, least time-consuming, and easiest to implement intervention(s) to implement in multi-family buildings city-wide and province-wide in the future.

Faculty Supervisor:

Thomas Gunton

Student:

Melanie Mewhort

Partner:

Recycle BC

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Program: