Meeting 4-16-14

We met today at our usual time. 12pm in the library. Everyone was in attendance and we met for about a half hour. We decided to meet at 10am in the library tomorrow since we don't have class. We discussed a few things about our final solution that will be developed more fully tomorrow. See everyone in the morning!

Meeting 4-9-14

We met on Wednesday, April 9 at noon in the library. All group members were in attendance. This group meeting gave us a lot of direction and I feel like it was a solid meeting.

Rachelle came with a really cool website she found. It was the one mentioned on the blog already that contains free printable signs that use pictures to help people recycle. Angie took more pictures of the recycling problem as evidence. David was very helpful is describing why we should focus our project a little more as it was beginning to be too broad. Anne had good insight as to how we can focus the project more and pros and cons for each option we could choose from. Chelsea had found a sustainability report card for UWRF that shows that Sodexo already has a program to reduce the amount of paper cups being used for coffee. We discussed this fully.

In order to clarify if the reusable mug program actually exists, (it said that if you bring your own mug, you get a medium or large drink for the price of a small) our group together wrote a list of questions to send to Michael Vanslow asking about the program. The questions included were: 

1. Do they offer med. or large drinks for price of small with reusable mug as mentioned in following link? http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2011/schools/university-of-wisconsin-river-falls/surveys/dining-survey
2. If this is the case, where is it offered? (C-store, retail dining, Peregrine Perks)
3. Do the employees know to offer this to students? Do they know how to ring it up?
4. Has it been advertised in the past or is it advertised now?
5. If it is not currently offered, are you open to offering this option or something similar?
6. Can Michael Vanselow help with this or is there someone else we need to contact?

Angie sent the email to him. Thank you for doing that Angie! We heard back very quickly and it does exist. Knowing that now, we are thinking of having our solution be advertising that this program exists and the result of that would hopefully be having more students use their reusable mugs and therefore eliminating more waste. 

We are meeting again next Wednesday. Same place, same time. 

Hello Coffee Club.

I am attaching a link --  http://www.recycleminnesota.org/resources-6/free-signs-a-images -- that has free printable signs to more clearly define recycling. I think it could be useful, and the key word here was "free". I had little luck with finding recycling centers like those I had photographed at the Minneapolis Convention Center, however the signs would alleviate any need to purchase new recycling centers. The blue recycling wastebaskets (Rubbermaid) are available several places and run about $13 retail. See you on Tuesday.

Group Meeting 4/2

We met on Wednesday, April 2 at noon in the Library. We did not get a group room. Instead we sat at a table on first floor...we're getting crazy changing things up! :) Everyone was in attendance. We went through the class feedback and individually talked about each thought and idea. The ones we really want to take into consideration and clarify are:

Make the idea of recycling inviting rather than demanding

Use signs by containers that show what can be recycled and what can't

What is the cost comparison between trash removal to landfills and recycling?

What if people get an iced coffee or smoothie that is in a plastic cup? (We want to clarify that our idea only applies to the hot coffee. We would like to help this too but ultimately we think it's too big of a project to do both.)

Do the people who empty the garbage actually recycle? (We want to research this to make certain this is the case.)

Does the school have to pay extra to recycle?

How much would it cost for signage around campus?

Marketing and signage are huge -- posters and banners that are eye catching.  I feel the banner they have outside the C-store is boring, who stops and reads it?

Is your goal to increase all recycling or just coffee cups?

For next week: Rachelle is going to look into the pricing of separated containers for recycling. The kinds with pictures. She is also going to research what an add-on picture label would cost.  Anne is going to make an example of what the separation signs could look like...pictures and all! David is going to contact the landfill for more information. Angie is going to take more pictures of coffee cups in trash cans. Chelsea is going to contact facilities to see if they are the ones that deal with trash on campus and try and get information from them.