The document summarizes research conducted on recycling at William & Mary in two stages. Stage 1 involved focus groups with students to understand their recycling knowledge, habits, and barriers. Key findings included the importance of convenience and a lack of awareness about certain items. Stage 2 used an online survey of 101 students to further investigate hypotheses generated from Stage 1, such as about recycling knowledge and certain items like pizza boxes and solo cups. The research aims to understand student recycling behaviors and identify opportunities to improve campus recycling programs and education.

1. 1
Recycling at William & Mary
Lizzie Farquhar | Keyan Momeni | Lauren Post | Ben Whitlatch

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Background Research 4
Stage 1 6
Research Objectives 7
Methods & Procedure 7
Key Findings 9
Hypotheses 12
Stage 2 13
Research Methods 14
Hypotheses 16
Key Findings 17
Limitations 22
Conclusions 24
Recommendations 25
What We Learned 27
Appendix 28
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3. Executive Summary
Today, sustainable practices are a hot topic for businesses and institutions. The College
of William and Mary is not exception. Since receiving a D- by the Sustainable
Endowment Institute in 2007, the College has increased its sustainability and recycling
efforts. Students are undoubtedly aware that recycling is a part of campus life, yet we
wanted to understand how much students actually recycle and what they know about
William and Mary’s current recycling initiatives.
We conducted market research to find out what students know about recycling at
William and Mary and recycling in general. In order to gain insight into the minds of
students, we first conducted focus groups to gather qualitative data. We used this data
to conduct further research, which consisted of gathering quantitative data through a
campus wide survey. Some of our limitations included obtaining a representative
sample generalizable to the campus population as well as potential response error.
Our focus groups consisted of current 12 William and Mary students who provided
valuable qualitative insight into the current state of recycling on campus. From our
focus groups we found that many students were unsure about what items could be
recycled; specifically there was confusion about solo cups and pizza boxes.
Furthermore, students indicated laziness as a reason for trashing items that they knew
could be recycled. Overall, very few students seemed aware of particular programs that
William and Mary offered to properly recycle speciality products, such as printer
cartridges and batteries.
The purpose of our survey data was to gather meaningful insight to support and further
explore the findings from our focus groups. We administered an online survey to 101
students at the College, 82 of which completed the survey. Our survey focused on
answering a set of 4 hypotheses. The survey questions were developed to understand
students’ current recycling behaviors and habits.
We found that students on-campus do not recycle more than students who live off-
campus. Additionally, we were able to determine the rank order of easiness to dispose
of commonly recycled items. We also found that students who do not recycle pizza
boxes and Solo cups do not report being more knowledgable about recycling than
students who do recycle pizza boxes and Solo cups. We did not find that more
students think that Solo cups can be recycled than students who do not think that they
can be recycled. Overall, the quantitative data and statistical analysis from Stage 2
guided us towards future studies about student habits and the reasons
underlying those habits.
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4. Background Research
While researching recycling at William & Mary and in the surrounding
area, we utilized articles from William & Mary’s website, including click
through links on those pages, as well as finding information from the
James City County recycling program.
Williamsburg, VA and James City County both provide curbside recycling,
where you may recycle household paper, such as newspaper and
telephone books, glass, metal cans, aluminum cans and foil products,
cardboard, and plastic bottles or jugs #1 or #2. In Williamsburg, VA, the
city recycled over 7,000 tons of recyclables in 2012 from businesses and
residents, including 37 tons of office paper and 8.7 tons of newspaper.
("Curbside Recycling Program.")
Within the context of Williamsburg, William & Mary recycles similar
materials. William & Mary’s website contains a Recycling Initiative section
within the Sustainability section that includes what you can recycle, where
you can recycle, and how to recycle. On campus, acceptable material for
recycling includes newspapers and other paper, cardboard boxes, plastic
(#1 and #2 bottles only) and aluminum cans. Unacceptable material
includes paper or cardboard with food waste, plastic bags, and plastics
with numbers other than #1 and #2. In administrative buildings, there are
dark blue containers near copiers, interior entrances, and in kitchen areas,
all of which are emptied biweekly. In residence halls, each room has a
recycling bin, which can be emptied into the recycling dumpsters outside.
Outside, there are recycling containers near many trash cans in high traffic
areas, where cans and plastic or glass bottles can be recycled, and large
dumpsters for recycle mixed materials, such as large cardboard boxes. To
recycle old electronics and ink cartridges, students can go to Swem and
the Post Office. To recycle plastic bags, students can go
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5. to Swem, Campus Center, Sadler Center, the Student Recreation Center,
Botetourt dorms, Jefferson basement, Jamestown North and South,
Landrum Basement, and the Daily Grind. The website also addresses
where to recycle other miscellaneous materials, books, and batteries. For
more information, visit https://www.wm.edu/sites/sustainability/initiatives/
recycling/index.php.
The College of William & Mary has improved its score on The College
Sustainability Report Card over the past few years. In 2007, The College
of William & Mary earned a D- on the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s
College Sustainability Report Card. Alarmed by such a low grade, the
administration implemented a new sustainability policy to be monitored
by a sustainability committee. The College worked on
t h e i r r e c y c l i n g p r o g r a m s , i n c o r p o r a t e d
environmentally friendly construction standards into
their major projects, and got the students involved in
their efforts. In 2008, the College raised its grade from
a D- to a C. In 2010, the College raised its grade to a
B after a strong push from on-campus initiatives.
The report card does not address the entire issue revolving around
recycling on campus. The data was collected from June 2009 through
August 2009, which is during summer vacation. The surveys were also
sent to “verified contacts at each every campus.” The student survey was
conducted by Phillip Zapfel, the “co-facilitator” of Student Environmental
Action Coalition from 2008-2009. Although Phillip provided insight to the
The College Sustainability Report Card, his “expertise” does not
represent the average William & Mary student.
Although the research done by The College Sustainability Report Cards is
valuable, the purpose of the data differs from our purpose. Whereas the
The College Sustainability Report Card seeks to provide a report about
sustainability on colleges nationwide, our research has a more narrowed
focus on the recycling programs specific to William & Mary.
A full Works Cited for our secondary sources can be found in Appendix 1.
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6. 6
STAGE 1
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

7. Research Objectives
Stage 1 of our research project seeks to find insight into the minds of
average William & Mary students to determine the factors that motivate
students to recycle or not recycle. Through the use of focus groups, we
want to answer how important students think recycling is, what are their
reasons for recycling or not recycling, and what can be done to improve
student participation in recycling.
Methods & Procedure
Data Collection Methods & Procedure
Participants
There were twelve participants in Stage 1. Participants were
undergraduate students at the College of William & Mary. Participants
were recruited by the our team through Facebook posts, emails, and
face-to-face contact. There were seven male participants and four female
participants. Of the male participants, two are members of Fraternities
and live in Fraternity on-campus housing, three are members of the W&M
Basketball team and live in a house off-campus, one is involved in Young
Life and lives off-campus, one lives with a roommate in on-campus
housing, and one lives alone in on-campus housing. Of the female
participants, one was a graduate student with working experience in
sustainability. A full list of Focus Group Participants can be found in
Appendix 2.
Focus Groups
Two focus group sessions were conducted. In the first focus group,
three male participants and two female participants were involved,
totaling five participants. In the second focus group, there were five
males and two females, totaling seven participants. In both focus
groups, the moderator and one note-taker were in the room with the
participants, while the other two team members observed from behind
the mirror.
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stage 1

8. Materials
For the focus groups, we compiled an interview guide (Appendix 3) that
was focused on understanding the importance of recycling to students
and the major limitations that they face in recycling on a daily basis. We
wanted to learn about individual differences in recycling habits to
understand how accommodating a campus-wide recycling program has
to be. We also wanted to see how varied students were in their
knowledge of recycling.
Data Analysis Methods & Procedure
To analyze the data, transcriptions (Appendix 4) were made from the
focus group recordings. We first read through the transcripts, then
analyzed the transcriptions in light of our research questions. For each
research question, we read through the transcriptions for answers to the
question, then created Post-its for the answers and posted them beneath
the relevant research question. We then grouped the Post-its on
similarity and common themes, labeling the groupings based on the
themes we found.
Limitations
The selection method we used for our participants provides limitations.
Given that our sample was a convenience sample, whereby participants
were drawn from our circle of friends, there is the issue of
representativeness.
We were also limited by the fact that we could not actually observe the
behavior of any of our participants; we have to take them for their word.
As always with self-report, this can be problematic because they may feel
inclined to say things that are socially acceptable and may hide certain
behaviors. The participants may also be unconscious toward some of
their behaviors and therefore be unable to speak about them.
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stage 1

9. Key Findings
Convenience
At Home
In response to nearly every question we asked during the focus group,
the topic of convenience was brought up. We began our discussion by
asking focus group members what recycling was like at home. Several
respondents said that one or more parents was keen on recycling, which
made the process of recycling at home easier on the participant. What
respondents found as they came to William & Mary is that recycling was
no longer convenient, or as convenient as it was at home. A girl in the
first group said that her home in Charlottesville “went single stream,
everything gets sorted, and we throw it all out then they split it up.” This
was the highest level of convenience at home that we discovered. This
participant also admitted to not recycling as much here because it is not
convenient. Others stated that their parents would sort anything out of
recycling or trash that did not belong and that the parents were usually in
charge of disposing of the recycling.
In Dorms
Upon arriving at William & Mary, students found that recycling was no
longer as convenient as it was at home. Recycling at school may seem
convenient, as the school provides a recycling bin in each dorm room, but
“if they only give you one bin for recycling, it’s going to turn into a trash
bin.” If students do choose to use the provided bin as a recycling bin,
some commented that if their trash is overflowing, they will put trash into
the recycling bin or vice versa. They felt that this was a function of the
bins not being large enough.
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stage 1

10. Around Campus
Our participants also noted the lack of recycling around campus,
particularly along main routes to and from classes. While they know that
there are recycling bins around campus along sidewalks, they do not
necessarily know where they are. They expressed a desire to see one
recycling bin per trashcan along sidewalks, as they will recycle something
if the option is right there. One student said if recycling is not available
when he needs it and he needs to get rid of something, “consciously if
I’m in a hurry and if I gotta go somewhere, I won’t [recycle].” Overall, the
general consensus was there are recycling bins around campus, but there
are not enough and that that are in inconvenient locations.
Fraternity Housing
One particular insight into recycling came from two members of
fraternities in the first focus group. Both men live in the new fraternity
housing on campus and both noted that large recycling bins have been
placed in their kitchens. To them, this would seem like the perfect
solution to cleaning up after parties on weekends, as they could take the
bin upstairs and have all of the brothers recycle the empty beer cans.
However, the barrier that they face is the threat of an alcohol violation for
having alcohol containers in common areas or common area receptacles.
Both agreed that if the threat of an alcohol violation was removed,
recycling in the fraternity houses would increase.
Education
Knowledge
All of the students acknowledged that they had at least some background
knowledge regarding recycling. The levels of knowledge differed from
knowing “not much” to a graduate student with “experience in
sustainability”. Generally, the participants with the most recycling
knowledge had some sort of background in recycling such as a member
of Earth Society, or working for Community on Sustainability.
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stage 1

11. Item Specific
Often times students acknowledged that they threw away items
that could have been recycled which shows that these students
do understand what items can be recycled. The overall
consensus points to the fact that student’s recycling knowledge
is heavily item specific. For example, almost all students know
they can recycle water bottles, but some students are confused
about whether they can recycle solo cups and pizza boxes. Only
one student knew that Williamsburg and James City County has a
policy that they only accept items labeled 1 and 2 for recycling.
Where to Recycle
Students generally knew that the “blue bins” around campus are meant
for recycling. The majority of students were aware that William and Mary
has recycling locations for special items, such as batteries and printer
cartridges, but only a few knew the exact locations on campus.
Improve Awareness
When asked how recycling could be improved, many of the students
acknowledged that improving education about recycling would be
helpful. Students suggested initiatives such as YouTube videos, campus
wide e-mails, as well as a freshmen orientation segment to increase
recycling education and awareness. Putting signs above recycling bins
pertaining what could be recycled in the bin was also a suggestion that
many students believed could help improve recycling awareness.
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stage 1

12. Hypotheses
The distance that a student has to travel to
recycle and the number of recycling bins
available on campus influences the amount
of recycling at William & Mary.
Students who recycle at home will recycle
less frequently at school, but more than
students who do not recycle at home.
The more students know about what can or
cannot be recycled, the more they will
recycle.
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1
2
3
stage 1

13. 13
STAGE 2
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

14. Research Methods
After reviewing our findings from Stage 1, we decided to redefine and
refocus our initial research questions and hypotheses. Sifting through the
focus group materials, we found that the factors that tend to affect a
student’s willingness and ability to recycle are motivation to recycle and
education about recycling on campus. We were more interested in diving
deeper into our findings regarding students’ education about recycling.
To explore these findings on a broader scale, we developed a
quantitative survey, targeting it towards current students of the College.
To create survey questions, we looked at our new hypotheses and
determined what we wanted to find. We did a test-run on our survey by
asking friends to read through our survey to ensure the wording was
understandable and free of bias. After adjusted our survey questions, we
created a survey on Qualtrics (Appendix 5), using an Internet self-
administered survey.
Our survey was divided into three sections. The first section was aimed at
determining what the respondent’s recycling habits were. The second
section asked about the respondents’ habits and knowledge about
recycling. The last portion of the survey explored how much students
knew about what we called “special items,” or rather items that are not
#1 or #2. These items cannot be recycled in the blue bins provided by the
school because they are not a #1 or #2 or because the item requires a
special disposal process.
To obtain a sample from the William and Mary student population, we
used convenience sampling. We posted the survey link to our Facebook
profiles and emailed the survey to friends. Although this was convenient
for us as researchers, the data is not generalizable to the William and
Mary student population. When we met our quota of 80 participants, we
closed the survey link.
Once we closed the survey, we exported the data to excel, where we
cleaned up the data. We then imported the data to SPSS to analyze the
data and to run statistical tests to prove or disprove our hypotheses.
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stage 2

15. We ran independent samples t-test to determine if there is a difference in
how often students who live on campus recycle versus how often students
who live off-campus recycle. To determine the order of difficulty in ease of
recycling for particular items, we computed the mean values for how easy
students found the items to be on a scale of 1 (difficult) to 7 (easy) and
computed paired samples t-tests between the items. We ran an
independent sample t-test to determine if knowledge about recycling
influenced whether or not students recycled party supplies. Finally, we ran
a univariate chi-square test to determine if the majority of students
believe that Solo cups are recyclable.
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stage 2

16. Hypotheses
Students who live on-campus recycle more often than
students who live off-campus.
Students perceive the various recyclable items on campus
to differ significantly with respect to how easy they are
to recycle; specifically, we hypothesize that the easiest
(to most difficult) items for students to recycle on
campus are: plastic bottles, paper, cans, glass jars and
bottles, plastic bags, batteries, printer cartridges.
Students who think that they do not know much about
recycling are more likely to recycle pizza boxes and
Solo cups than students who think that they do know
more about recycling.
The majority of students think that solo cups can be
recycled.
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1
2
3
4
stage 2

17. Key Findings
H1: ON CAMPUS VS. OFF CAMPUS
We hypothesized that students who live on campus recycle more than
students who live off campus. To test this hypothesis, we ran an
independent samples t-test with our survey data. The two groups that we
compared were students that identified as living on campus and students
that identified as living off campus based on their response to question
“on/off”. We compared these two groups to the mean response for the
question “often,” which asked students to rate how often they recycled
on a scale of 1 (never) to 7 (all the time). Based on Hypothesis 1, we
expected to find that students who lived on campus would have a higher
mean than students who lived off campus.
The mean response for students who live on campus was 5.04 (n=48)
while the mean response for students who live off campus was 4.82
(n=34). This left us with a mean difference of 0.22. After running an
independent samples t-test, we found that there was no statistical
significance (p=0.583) of the mean difference between the two groups.
This suggests that there is no difference in how often students recycle
based on whether they live on or off campus, therefore we can reject our
hypothesis. You can find the full SPSS output in the Appendix, Table 1.
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IN GENERAL, students report that they know a moderate amount about recycling, with a
mean value of 4.29/7.00 on a scale of 1 (very little) to 7 (a lot), with a standard deviation of 1.33
stage 2
figure 1

18. H2: RANKING EASINESS OF RECYCLING
We hypothesized that the easiest (to most difficult) items for students to
recycle on campus are: plastic bottles, paper, cans, glass bottles, plastic
bags, batteries, and printer cartridges. We computed the mean values for
how easy students found the items to be on a scale of 1 (difficult) to 7
(easy). Our findings suggest that the easiest (to most difficult) items for
students to recycle on campus are the following (corresponding mean
values are in parentheses): paper (6.41), plastic bottles (6.24), cans (6.17),
glass jars and bottles (6.05), plastic bags (5.10), printer cartridges (3.05),
and batteries (2.61).
After computing these results, we conducted paired samples t-tests to
determine which of the paired differences are statistically significant.
Paired samples t-tests suggest that paper is easier to recycle than glass
bottles. Paired samples t-tests also suggested that glass is easier to
recycle than plastic bags (p<0.001, t=0.349), that plastic bags are easier
to recycle than printer cartridges (p<0.001, t=7.804) and that printer
cartridges are easier to recycle than batteries (p<0.01, t=3.44). The full
SPSS output it in the Appendix, Table 2.
While our hypothesis was incorrect for the first and last pair of items on
our list, we were correct in hypothesizing the rank of items 3-5. Items 1 &
2 and 6 & 7 merely switched one position in the rank from our hypothesis.
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figure 2
stage 2

19. H3: KNOWLEDGE AND PARTY SUPPLIES
We hypothesized that students who think that they do not know much
about recycling are more likely to recycle pizza boxes and Solo cups than
students who think that they do know more about recycling.
On a scale of 1 (very little) to 7 (a lot), the mean value of education level
for students who think that pizza boxes are recyclable is 4.08/7 and the
mean value of education level for students who do not think that pizza
boxes are recyclable is 4.50/7.00, with a mean difference 0.42.
Independent samples t-tests suggest that students who do not recycle
pizza boxes do not differ in reported education levels about recycling
than students who do recycle pizza boxes (p = 0.149)
On a scale of 1 (very little) to 7 (a lot), the mean value of education level
for students who think that Solo cups are recyclable is 4.15/7.00 and the
mean value of education level for students who do not think that Solo
cups are recyclable is 4.49/7.00, with a mean difference 0.34.
Independent samples t-tests suggest that students who report knowing
little about recycling do not recycle pizza boxes more than students who
report knowing a lot about recycling (p = 0.259).
Taken together, these findings suggests that student knowledge does not
affect whether or not they recycle pizza boxes or Solo cups. What could
be a cause for the lack of difference is whether or not students think that
pizza boxes and Solo cups can be recycled, rather than if they do recycle
pizza boxes. To test this, we ran two independent samples t-tests about
whether or not students think pizza boxes and Solo cups can be recycled.
Independent samples t-tests suggest that knowledge about recycling
does not impact whether or not students think that pizza boxes are
recyclable (p = 0.149), nor does knowledge impact whether or not
students think that Solo cups are recyclable (p = 0.259). This suggests
that students who think that pizza boxes and Solo cups are recyclable do
not recycle these items more than students who do not think that pizza
boxes and Solo cups are recyclable. A full SPSS output can be found in
the Appendix, Table 3.
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stage 2

20. This could mean that students are not very good at appraising their
knowledge about recycling. Some students who think they are
knowledgeable about recycling obviously know less than they think they
do, evident by the fact that they recycle pizza boxes and/or solo cups.
Conversely, some students who think they are not knowledgeable may
know more than they think, as they do not recycle pizza boxes and/or
Solo cups.
20
students that think
these can be
recycled
students that think
these cannot be
recycled
Mean knowledge
4.15/7.00
Mean knowledge
4.49/7.00
Mean knowledge
4.08/7.00
Mean knowledge
4.50/7.00
stage 2

21. H4: RECYCLING SOLO CUPS
We hypothesized that the majority of students think that Solo cups can be
recycled. In our survey, 47 students think that Solo cups are recyclable
and 35 students think that Solo cups are not recyclable.
A univariate Chi square test suggests that there is no statistically
significant difference between the number of students who think Solo
cups are recyclable than the number of students who do not think Solo
cups are recyclable. The SPSS output is in the Appendix, Table 4. We
cannot reject the null hypothesis, meaning that we cannot say that the
majority of students think that Solo cups can be recycled.
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stage 2
figure 4
number of students
that believe Solo
cups ARE
recyclable
number of students
that believe Solo
cups are NOT
recyclable

22. Limitations
Representativeness
In regards to sampling error, the convenience sample means that the
results are most likely not generalizable to the entire William and Mary
student population. We spread the survey through our friend groups
because this provided large blocks of people that would answer the
survey. This helped us ensure a large number of respondents, but as a
result it may have made our sample more homogeneous and less
representative, with many of our respondents being seniors and/or in
sororities.
Sample Size
The size of our sample was another limitation to our study. Our sample
had over 80 respondents, but a larger, more diverse sample would have
been better. The survey results were processed digitally through Qualtrics
and SPSS, so adding more respondents would not have made analyzing
the data any more difficult.
Respondent Variation
Our survey also featured many interval questions. These can be
problematic because the difference in what one respondent considers a
“5” on a 7-point scale may be different from another respondent. This
could have impacted the degree of statistical significance for our
hypotheses.
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stage 2

23. Self-Reporting
The self-report nature of the study also had limitations. This could have
limited the legitimacy of our results in many ways. For one, social
desirability could have affected how participants reported their
responses. Since the survey was on recycling, a subject close to the
environment and one with high social desirability, we think it is possible
that many respondents overstated their recycling habits. The anonymous
nature of the survey may have decreased this phenomenon. Self-
reporting also could have been problematic in that it emphasizes
respondents’ beliefs as opposed to their actual behavior. This creates
response error in that people may not know their habits well enough to
report their behavior properly. Their responses could emphasize what
they think as opposed to what they actually do.
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stage 2

24. Conclusions
We found it very difficult to find any statistically significant conclusions.
Given the sample size, the results are inconclusive. The sample was not
only small, but was not representative of the William and Mary student
population. To generalize the results, we would need to obtain a larger,
more representative sample. Although we may still not find statistically
significant results, the results would still be important to understand and
would have implications for recycling initiatives on campus.
Further research would also need to be done to explore how frequently
students are recycling, if they are recycling correctly, and, if they are not
recycling, why they are not recycling. We predict that students are not
recycling frequently and that the reasons for this is because students are
(a) not educated about what can and cannot be recycling, (b) not
motivated to devote the energy to recycle. We believe that students care
about recycling, but that recycling isn’t always convenient for students.
Our research suggests that students find some items to be easier to
recycling, with the following order, from easiest to most difficult: paper,
plastic bottles, cans, batteries, printer cartridges, and plastic bags.
We also collected data regarding whether students knew where they
could recycle ‘special’ items on campus. These items included batteries,
printer cartridges, and plastic bags. Through text response, 37 out of 75
students who chose to respond to that question indicated that they knew
of at least one place where they could recycle these items. While we did
not further analyze this data for this report, in the future we would like to
use this data to determine whether students are influenced by any
educational initiatives that the College implements.
Overall, we would need much more research to address these questions
adequately. We would not only need a larger, more representative
sample, but we would need to revise our survey questions to address our
previous hypotheses and additional predictions.
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stage 2

25. Recommendations
Extended Orientation
To improve recycling participation around campus, we recommend that the College
make a number of changes. In the focus groups that we conducted, we noticed that
there was generally confusion and disagreement over what items could and could not
be recycled. A possible solution to this problem is that the College could add an
extended orientation seminar on recycling and sustainability. Extended orientation
seminars are mandatory sessions offered to freshmen students during their first
semester at the College. The topics typically include education on racial prejudice,
alcohol and drugs, and sexual assault.
Eliminate Alcohol Violations
We believe that eliminating the alcohol violations for fraternities and sororities would
improve the recycling habits of those students. We discovered through our focus
groups that Greek organizations get in trouble if they are caught with beer cans or
other alcoholic containers in their recycling bins. This encourages these organizations
to dispose of these recyclables through other means.
Educational Materials
It’s obvious from our both our qualitative and quantitative research that there is
confusion over what can and cannot be recycled. It would be helpful to educate
students at the point of disposal through placing labels on both recycle and trash bins.
Labels on recycling bins could have pictures making it obvious which items belong in
the bins. Labels on trash cans could have images of what can be recycled, encouraging
students not to place those items in the trash. An example is located in the Appendix,
Figure 5.
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stage 2

26. Two Bins in Dorm Rooms
The College encourages recycling participation by placing a recycle bin in each dorm
room. Unfortunately, students often use this bin as a trash can because it is the only
one provided to them. If the school provided a recycling bin as well as a trash can in all
dorm rooms, we think that students would use each bin for their respective purposes.
Advertise Special Sites
While sites for recycling special items (batteries, printer cartridges, plastic bags, etc.)
exist on campus, we learned that many students do not know where those sites are
located. The school could do a better job of advertising these locations. Swem Library
is a site where many special items can be recycled, but exact recycling location is not
very obvious.
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stage 2

27. What We Learned
What we did gain from this project was valuable educational experience.
We learned to make hypotheses simple and testable. Sometimes, we
found ourselves coming up with either unrealistic and confusing
hypothesis or hypotheses that were very basic and not interesting. We
learned that we should have the research questions in front of us when
developing our interview guide and survey questions so we do not ask
questions that are not useful in answering our research questions. When
developing a survey it is important to make sure that there is at least one
question per hypothesis. We also could have utilized the backward
market research technique to help us come up with more creative
findings. We could have decided on a way we wanted to present our
data, then decide what statistical test we would need to display that data,
and then develop the questions from there. We were limited in this
aspect because we did not know the different statistical tests when we
were coming up with our research questions.
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stage 2

28. Appendix
Appendix 1
Works Cited
"College of William & Mary College Sustainability Report Card 2010." The College
Sustainability Report Card. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
"Curbside Recycling Program." Curbside Recycling Program. James City County, n.d. Web. 15
Feb. 2014.
Ducibella, JIm. "William & Mary - College Climbs RecycleMania Charts." WM.edu. The
College of William and Mary, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Foley, Patrick. "William & Mary - Committee on Sustainability Announces Green Fee Awards
for the Fall 2012 Semester." WM.edu. The College of William and Mary, 7 Dec. 2012.
Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
Watson, Brian. "William & Mary - College's Green Grades Improving." Wm.edu. The College of
William and Mary, 30 Sept. 2008. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
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29. Appendix 2
Focus Group Participants
29
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30. Appendix 3
Final Interview Guide
• Introduction/warm-up questions
o Ask for the following:
§ Name
§ Year
§ Major
§ One main extra curricular activity
• Tell me about your recycling habits.
o Tell me about recycling in your (parents’ home or wherever you live when you are
not at school)?
o Does all of your family recycle?
o What are your recycling behaviors at school?
§ What factors contribute to how you choose to dispose of your materials?
§ How do you think students recycle at school?
o If you recycle, why?
• Now think about the average W&M student.
o What are their recycling habits?
• Barriers
o When on campus, what are the barriers that prevent you from recycling or that
make recycling inconvenient/difficult?
o What kinds of things would make recycling more convenient for you?
• What has W&M done to educate you about recycling programs on campus?
o How much do you know about what you can recycle on campus?
o How could W&M improve recycling
§ (1) Awareness?
§ (2) Initiatives
• If W&M made some of those changes, how do you think the behavior of students would
change?
o Would these changes make you change your behavior?
30
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31. Appendix 4
Group 1 Transcription:
Lauren: First, thank you for being here. Why don’t we
start with kind of an introduction – not everyone
knows everyone. Share your year, your name, your
major and one major extra-curricular activity, and a fun
fact.
Cadie: I can start. I’m Cadie. I’m a senior. Um wait,
what are all of the things again? (laughs).
Lauren: Year, major, one major extra-curricular
activity.
Cadie: Oh OK. I’m economics major, math minor. Um
my fun fact, oh my extra-curricular is I’m on the dance
team and then um my fun fact is that my mom dated
Jon Stewart when they were both here. That is my
stock fun fact.
Matt: I’m Matt. I’m a junior. I’m a bio and econ double
major. Um I was on the rugby team for a while and
then I broke my collarbone so I had to stop that. And
my fun fact, I’ll go with the celebrity theme. I don’t
know if you have seen Jersey Shore, but my mom is
dating one of the girl’s dads in the show.
Bob: I’m Bob. I’m a junior. I’m a marketing major.
Campus – I’m in ATO and I’m president of Club Golf.
And I guess keeping with Jersey Shore theme, um my
dad was Ronnie’s lawyer in season 1 when he punched
the guy out and got arrested.
(Everyone laughs)
Jake: I guess it’s back to me? I’m Jake. I’m a junior.
I’m a government major, history minor. Um, main
extra-curricular activity, I do a ministry called Young
Life with high school kids and fun fact, I’m in the
Virginia National Guard. I do field artillery.
Sarah: My name is Sarah and I’m a senior, which is
weird because I’m a social junior but just decided I’m
a senior. I’m graduating at the end of the summer.
Cadie: Oh my goodness, I didn’t even know that, that’s
so fun.
Sarah: And I’m a psych and kinesiology double major.
I’m uh 20. And I am in DG with Lauren and I guess, so
my family, like my dad’s family farm, the house and
the last bit of land was sold to the drummer in the Dave
Matthews Band. I’m from Charlottesville.
Lauren: Cool. OK well we’ll go ahead and dive into
the exciting times of recycling. So just to kind of start
us off, I want you to tell me about your recycling
habits just in general.
Sarah: I don’t really do them.
Jake: Like if it’s, if it’s clear like there’s garbage can
and a recycling bin, and I know it’s recyclable, I will
recycle. But currently I don’t have the recycling bin.
Sarah: I think a big part of it is my area at home went
single stream, like everything gets sorted, and we
throw it all out then they split it. Um yeah it’s a weird
thing, I don’t know. I recycle paper, like if I’m printing
stuff or I printed something wrong, I’ll recycle that.
And cans.
Cadie: We have our lovely recycling bin in our room.
We, like, last year we took Marketing & Society and
one of the groups did a recycling project and
apparently Virginia only recycles 1 and 2 or something.
So like woah, I didn’t even know there were numbers
and like to find out you can’t even recycle Solo cups
and things that I have been recycling forever. So now,
I’m sure I’m trying not to put the solo cups in the
recycling bin. You know, baby steps.
Bob: You can’t recycle Solo cups?
Cadie: No. (laughs)
Bob: I did not know that.
Cadie: You learned something new!
Lauren: More fun facts!
Matt: I recycle a lot better at home than I do at school.
At home I actually do like newspaper and cans and
plastic and stuff like that. Here, I just throw things out
for the most part.
Lauren: Ok so why don’t we build on that.
Bob: I’m kinda in the same boat.
Lauren: Yeah I think we all touched on that but tell me
a bit more about your recycling habits at home or
wherever you reside when you’re not at school, kind
of, and how your family, what their habits are too.
Bob: Well I’m from New Jersey and like we always
just have two different trash cans in the kitchen – one
for trash, one recyclable. We have two garbage cans
outside that were given by the towns. A couple of years
ago they went from individual person’s garbage cans
that you would just go to the store and buy and I think
three years ago they actually gave you one –
one blue one green – for recyclable and non-
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32. recyclable so we do that. The trucks come around and
pick them up, so it’s easy to do at home but here it’s
not as easy I guess. I do a lot of cans because I live in a
fraternity house and before we have an event, you
know, we’ll change out the garbage cans and most of
the stuff that’s going in there is either paper or cans, or
Solo cups, which I thought were recyclable until three
seconds ago. But, that’s like, I’ll throw that in the
recycle dumpster because it’s mostly cans. That’s about
it for here.
Cadie: My dad’s pretty intense about recycling. He like
picked up this like new habit I think as more kids leave
the house. So he even like takes the electronic
recyclables, like brings them to the plant, or there’s
like a day a month where you can recycle your old
TV’s, computers, and other electronics, and stuff. So
he gets very angry if I like throw a can in the trash or
something.
Jake: Yeah my dad will do the same. Like if he sees
something in our trashcan that’s like big enough he’ll
make you dig it out or like vice versa. He always gets
really made at my mom. He also recycles light bulbs,
like take them to Home Depot, which I guess is a
thing. So he’s really the stickler on that and I guess I
gained part of that. I think it’s more of a convenience
thing. But I don’t have a separate recycling bin and I’m
not going to actively pursue recycling.
Sarah: I’m pretty sure it’s single stream, at least that’s
what I was told, that it all goes to one place.
Jake: And that you’re just throwing away everything.
Sarah: Yeah or that. Yeah. I’m pretty sure that changed
in the last year. Maybe that’s a lie. I don’t know.
Lauren: Ok, so thinking about the average William &
Mary student, what do you think their habits are?
Matt: They’re probably pretty bad.
Cadie: Yeah
Matt: The average person doesn’t really recycle much
here.
Sarah: I don’t know. I would say that, because
freshman year you get a recycling bin in your room.
Bob: But you don’t get a trashcan so people just use it
as a trashcan. I did it freshman year.
Sarah: Really? I thought there was a black one. There
was definitely a black one. The problem is that we
would run out of space in the trashcan and the papers
that were in the recycling bin would then have stuff put
on top of them and then, yup. But there were times
when we would purposely go recycle that stuff.
Cadie: I think William & Mary students compared to
our whole age demographic are probably pretty
average. I wouldn’t say that we’re worse but we could
be better now that there are more recycling bins
everywhere. Especially in Swem when you have lots of
paper to throw away.
Sarah: I think we’re pretty aware of it relatively
speaking.
Matt: You mentioned how like you guys recycle all of
your cans after parties and stuff, right?
Bob: Well it’s not like a concerted effort. It just kinda
happens because, I mean everyone cleans up their
rooms before parties, so a new trashcan, and the only
thing that goes in there are just empty cans really. No
one’s gonna just toss that, you carry a big black bag of
rattling cans, you’re not going to toss that in the
dumpster, you’re going to toss that in the recycling.
Matt: A lot of people are bad about that in my house,
the KDR house. People just throw like all of their trash
into one trash bag and throw that in the garbage can.
Jake: I’m fairly cynical. I feel like most students, just
our demographic in general, it’s a convenience thing.
You see all of the stickers on trash cans that say like
“stop”. Yeah like heading to the landfill. But unless
there’s an alternative, unless there’s a recycling bin
right next to the garbage can, no one’s going to pursue
recycling elsewhere so it just kinda goes in the trash.
Cadie: Like then you have to get down to the numbers,
you have to wash like different stuff that you’ve used.
And you throw away like one bottle that you didn’t
wash or one thing that isn’t the right number, it can
mess up the whole unit of recycling that you threw out.
That one thing from Marketing & Society really stuck
with me. It was really scarring. Like all this time I’ve
been throwing out my little recycling bin and feel so
good about myself and then to realize I’ve probably
been doing it wrong and messing up recycling for
everyone.
Bob: I feel like every bag I’ve put in the dumpster, I’ve
messed up the system now.
Matt: I didn’t realize if you put something wrong in
there it would mess up the system.
Cadie: I don’t really know, this was one presentation,
but that’s what they said. It was scarring.
Lauren: (laughs) Never recover from that. So
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33. you kinda touched upon some of the barriers, where
like if it’s not next to it, what other barriers do you see
or can you elaborate a bit more about barriers to keep
you from recycling?
Matt: Well one thing, [name] sent out an email to us
saying like you know if we put a big recycling bin in
your house and wouldn’t penalize you for putting beer
cans and stuff in there, do you think you’d be more
likely to recycle and we were like yeah. It would make
a big difference.
Bob: They just put that in.
Matt: Oh did they? For you guys?
Bob: Yeah last week. Do you guys have one?
Matt: No not yet.
Bob: Yeah we got one. It’s in a weird corner of our
kitchen.
Sarah: What is it?
Bob: It’s a giant recycle, blue garbage can, which just
showed up this week.
Matt: Yeah I think it would be helpful if we got it.
Jake: Education too. People won’t necessarily know to
look for 1’s and 2’s or to even know what a 1 or 2
would be to recycle that.
Bob: We were separating in our kitchen I’ve noticed
though. During rush, we had like chili, and like a lot of
brothers cook and don’t have meal plans so like they
actually cook and I noticed the guys have been
separating cans and plastics from the black trash bag
that we have in there. Now we have the blue bin and
we just toss it in there but even before we had that I
noticed a couple of guys, there was like a pile in there.
Cadie: I think one of the main barriers for me is the
pile aspect. I don’t want like piles of trash sitting
around. Like if our, if I didn’t have a recycling bin
ready, like readily available, then I would probably just
throw it away with the alternative being like a pile of
papers and cans in the corner of my room for a long
time.
Lauren: Ok, so what other kind of things do you think
would make it more convenient for you?
Bob: I mean having that big thing in the kitchen helps.
Lauren: Yeah
Bob: It’s just the, I guess that most it the stuff got
separated but we didn’t really have a set bin. Like it
was just kinda on the floor in a pile. We had one of the
bins from the rooms, one of the really small ones, and
that helps just as a very clear distinguisher for this is
trash and this is recycling. Because I know when I pass
it, like on campus and stuff, if I’m walking out of
dining halls or something and I have a can in my hand,
when there are two next to each other, you’re not just
going to toss it in the trash, you’re going to put it in
recycling.
Cadie: I think an information sheet would be helpful so
I would know “oh it’s ok if I didn’t wash out this glass
jar, it can still be recycled.”
Sarah: I think that’s a big part of it. Like I didn’t know
that it is the case that if you throw this in with all of
your 1’s and 2’s like whether that messes it up.
Cadie: It’s only certain things, but yeah.
Sarah: But also like if it you know, can’s half full of
soda or quarter full, I mean ideally you dump it out but
there’s still soda in there, is that an issue? That kind of
stuff. I don’t know if there’s really a feasible way to
educate. You know people do that and you get the fliers
posted places but I don’t know.
Jake: Well what making it part of orientation for
freshmen? Like one of the classes or like I don’t know,
any other classes, but having that, having sustainability
being one of the other things. Because I remember a lot
of things from freshman orientation, surprisingly.
Cadie: Or like a little cheat sheet, like the landfill
stickers except like 10 things you should know about
recycling on the recycling bin.
Jake: Or post it frequently throughout campus.
Sarah: I think when it comes to college kids it’s all
about making it easy. It’s got to be convenient. It has to
be there labeled with bright colors.
Cadie: I do think that there is some guilt associated
with it. Like if I was holding something like a can that
I know is definitely recyclable, I would definitely feel
guilty putting it in the trashcan. There are barriers but
if you provide them, people would hop on it.
Lauren: So do you just mean having, making it more
available.
Cadie: And knowing exactly how to do it.
Lauren: Ok so what do you all know about
recycling on campus?
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34. (some laughs)
Bob: That it exists.
Matt: That there are a couple of bins.
Jake: There are a few. You have to look for them.
Matt: I mean there are a couple of places like they’ll
have the regular trash can and a recycling one next to
it, but that’s not true for every garbage can. Like it
wouldn’t be that hard for them to put another one next
to it.
Lauren: Like we have one over here.
Cadie: The B school is very good at recycling. Outside
the B school, mmm.
Lauren: Well we’re LEED certified.
Cadie: I think it’s also like the old academic buildings
like so many things. Like why can’t we have bathroom
stalls that are up to my boobs in Morton? I kinda want
that a little more than I want recycling bins so…haha
sorry about that.
Bob: Those lids are cool too. The ones that like for the
recycle bins that are purely cans or paper. They either
have the slot for the can or the slot for the paper.
Because that’s literally like I can’t toss anything in
there, you know.
Lauren: That’s smart.
Bob: And when I see it I want to put the can in the
hole.
Lauren: So besides the bins that are shaped, what do
you think William & Mary has done to educate you
about the recycling programs that are on campus?
Jake: I don’t know about the programs. Like I said, the
only thing I’ve seen are the little landfill things.
Matt: I always see on like the doors of the Caf that
Virginia is the number one in recycling but it never
says anything about William & Mary or anything like
that.
Sarah: I mean I guess that kind of falls under like
Williamsburg, like waste management whatever and is
less like a school event program.
Bob: I occasionally see a flyer but who stops and read
a flyer? I don’t say that to be mean but like it’s true.
Cadie: And there are so many like important things we
should be thinking about as college students, you know
like saving the poor all those. Like there are flyers for
so many things and recycling would just get lost in the
mix.
Sarah: I feel like I sat through too many seminars in
high school about it. Like when you said we were
talking about recycling there was this instant *cringe*
moment. But I do remember certain things, like you’re
not supposed to throw out caps of certain bottles.
Cadie: its like I need to read a whole manual so I know
what to recycle.
Lauren: So what do you think William & Mary could
actually do then?
Cadie: Definitely like a fun facts about the numbers
and washing and everything.
Bob: I believe in something like you said – add it to the
orientation.
Jake: May as well
Bob: You know the sea of stuff you have to sit through
for orientation when you’re a freshman, it certainly
won’t hurt adding something about recycling.
Sarah: I think that and just scattering bins everywhere.
Everywhere everywhere.
Jake: Like yeah every place there’s a trashcan put a
recycling bin next to it.
Bob, Cadie, Sarah: Yeah.
Sarah: If it’s there.
Bob: Yeah if it’s there and I’m going to throw
something out, I’ll put it in the recycling bin. If it’s not,
consciously if I’m in a hurry if I gotta go somewhere I
won’t.
Sarah: But I’ve definitely been in places where all I
can find are recycling bins.
Cadie: Yeah
Sarah: Like I just want to throw this out. But that’s less
of an issue here.
Lauren: Are there like particular locations that come to
mind? One way or the other?
Sarah: OK so I was just flying and that was a
major problem in the airports and I couldn’t
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35. find but that’s in an airport, not on William and Mary
campus. I just got really frustrated because it was like
paper, cans, class, plastic bags. I just want o throw it
out.
Cadie: I think it’s the walks. Like if I’m like drinking a
Gatorade and walking to class, to throw it away I have
no idea where recycling bins are. Like either they just
come up on my walk or there aren’t any. And then
you’re like no!
Sarah: What about like cardboard coffee cups?
Matt: I was just thinking about that. I don’t know if
they’re recyclable.
Sarah: [inaudible]
Cadie: I’m probably going to go home and look it all
up.
Lauren: So um do you think in terms of William &
Mary, and kind of elaborate on this, it’s more about
awareness or the actual initiatives on campus, what do
you see as a bigger problem?
Jake: What do you mean by initiatives?
Lauren: Kind of like is it there’s like a lack of bins
around, for example, or is a lack of not knowing what
to recycle or is it something completely different,
where it’s something like people don’t care?
Jake: I wouldn’t say people don’t care. Well OK
caring, like we’ve been talking about, it’s, if people
have the option they will obviously choose, or most
people choose to recycle something, what they can. So
I think just on the basis level it’s the availability for the
alternative to recycle and on the secondary level we
can talk about education of just knowing what to
recycle then. But I feel like more recycle bins would
have to come first.
Matt: Yeah I agree with that. You know if you have the
option, you’re going to recycle, but like she just said
about coffee cups, I feel like they could be recycled but
I have no idea and those are the things I throw out the
most. You know, coffee cups and stuff like that. There
definitely needs to be a bit of an education portion too.
Because I just think of like cans and bottles to recycle.
And newspapers.
Sarah: I think it might be useful, as opposed to just a
generic like these are numbers, you can recycle cans,
but make it specific. So make it like “that coffee cup
that you are always buying, you can do this with.” Or
like “remember last time you were running from point
A to point B, and you were holding that thing from X.”
Jake: It’s like an ad campaign almost.
Sarah: Yeah but make it relatable, make it so like that
people tie that fact to like something in their life. I
think they’re going to be more likely to remember that
if they’re then holding that coffee cup and think oh I
remember reading that specifically.
Jake: Like specific to William & Mary students. Like
“Hey that Flat Hat you’re holding.”
Matt: Or “That Wawa
Sarah: Yeah or the Wawa cup. Exactly. Like stuff like
that I think would be, I don’t know. That would take
some time thinking about things that we’re throwing
away the most that could be recycled.
Cadie: I agree
Sarah: I think that would make people remember the
facts more.
Cadie: Especially if you could put the little fun
recycling fact about like the specific item at the
specific place. So like, at the Grind, like all coffee cups
are recyclable. Or like at Wawa, the plastic bags and
the plastic cup. Your to-go box.
Sarah: Yeah! To go boxes! Those are things we
definitely throw away on a daily basis.
Lauren: OK so you think if William & Mary made
some of those changes, do you think students would do
some more? And how do you think just behavior in
general in students would change?
Cadie: I think people want to. I feel better when I
recycle, so I’d be into it.
Sarah: I don’t think it’s that people don’t want to, I
think they just aren’t thinking about it and so they need
a way to remember as they’re going to throw it out that
they shouldn’t or it’s just not readily available.
Bob: I think if you present people with the choice to
recycle or not recycle, everyone here will recycle if it’s
just as easy and if you put two trashcans next to each
other it’s just as easy. And I think it will engrain this
habit, people will start recognizing what they’re doing.
It’s not, I don’t think they’re going to change their
behaviors that much and won’t think “oh I feel so
much better about myself” just because.
Cadie: Like a whole new woman!
Bob: I mean it’s good that you do, I’m not
saying it’s not. I don’t think people will after
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36. recycling go out and start a recycling initiative, but I
think they will subconsciously or consciously start
being more conscious of it. Um more aware of it
eventually. But you have to give them the choice and a
lot of times they don’t have a choice - they have a
trashcan, something they need to get rid of and
someplace to be.
Lauren: Yeah.
Matt: This is going back a little bit, but you mentioned
you guys like, looked at recycling initiatives the school
has taken and I just remembered that the Caf or Sadler,
I’m not sure if it’s both or just Sadler, has tried
reusable to go boxes. Like I’ve never actually seen one
and I wouldn’t know where to get one.
Bob: I’ve seen one.
Matt: You’ve seen one.
Bob: I’ve seen one.
Sarah: They’re green right?
Matt: Yeah like I’ve seen pictures of them but I
wouldn’t know where to get one, like what I would
have to do with it. So like they have the option but they
don’t make it easy to use.
Cadie: Also I feel like it’s gross.
Jake: Yeah I feel like I wouldn’t. Because then you
have to carry it back.
Matt: Yeah it’s a little ridiculous that you have to take
your to go box home then bring it back. It’s like even
the programs they have they don’t explain or advertise
very well.
Cadie: And I think if it became a wide, like there was
the ability to recycle everywhere, then it would
become kind of a social thing. Like you wouldn’t want
to be that kid who is blatantly not recycling.
Lauren: Good thinking.
Cadie: That’s a little weird (laughs).
Jake: I think if you establish the mindset. Like even
when you go back home, like oh I normally put this
thing somewhere different than a trashcan. I guess
there’s convenience there too but at least they’ll be
thinking about it. Then you could change
consciousness.
Lauren: OK so you guys have kind of talked about the
average William and Mary student. But you know, the
whole statistics average sometimes doesn’t capture
everything and we don’t know how wide the difference
is, so what kind of differences do you see in students,
like what’s the kind of disparity in terms of their
behaviors, and why do you think they’re there if there
are any?
Bob: Now? Or what could be?
Lauren: Both. Now and what it could be.
Jake: Like do you know people who are super
recyclers?
Lauren: Yeah.
Sarah: I don’t think I know any super recyclers.
Jake: I’m sure they exist.
Bob: Kind of like that one person who will carry the
recyclable [inaudible]. I think most people just are I
mean I think our age group has gown up with starting
to get these signals of recycling and they care about the
earth kind of patterns as we go through middle school
and high school so I think people are conscious of it
and given a choice they would. I think it’s all about
accessibility is the big thing. Personally, I have the
recycling bin the school gave me but I bought a
trashcan for my bedroom. But I know sometimes at
parties those get blurred because the trash just piles up.
But I think that if people had more of a choice of easy
accessibility you would see a trend.
Jake: I feel like super recyclers, which is a lot of
people I know, but like if I’m in TJs or something like
I’ll see a bunch of people using recyclable cloth bags.
Bob: My mom has those.
Cadie: I use those.
Lauren: I do too.
Jake: See to me that’s a little above and beyond
average.
Sarah: I think if you literally just stuck to trashcans in
every single dorm room I think that’s a big step. To
have a recycle bin and a trashcan as opposed to just a
recycling bin.
Cadie: I don’t think there’s a lot of people on the
outskirts or even in the hard negatives. Like I’m sure
there are a couple of people who think it’s all a scam or
it can’t work. Just like there are only a few people like
my dad who will sit on the highway for three
hours to drop off our old TV. Alright dad. I
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37. think most people if the fall mostly not recycle then
they could be easily persuaded and people who fall in
more likely to recycle could get better. More in the
middle.
Lauren: Ok, anything else about, so big changes you
kinda talked about, having more trash bins in the
dorms but then more kind of pairing up of the trashcan
to recycling ratios.
Matt: The thing about the trashcans in the dorms is that
they’re small. It would be more helpful if they gave
you one big one versus a couple of small ones. I know
in my freshman dorm we had like a trashcan, like our
own personal one then they gave us that small blue one
that’s only like this big so you throw 3 or 4 cans in
there and it’d full then your trashcan would get full
then you would just throw things wherever because
you didn’t want to take out the trash.
Sarah: I agree.
Matt: So if it was a big one that you could fill up bunch
and only take out once in a while people would be
more likely to actually consistently put recycling in
there.
Cadie: Especially because the cleaning staff would take
out, I know that we had a big recycling bin in the
kitchen that the cleaning staff would take out but we
would abuse it because they knew they didn’t have to
take it out so they would throw random stuff in the
recycling bin because there wasn’t a trashcan. But if
there was both, a trashcan and a recycling bin, that the
cleaning staff took out I think people would hop on
that because it would also take away how frequently
they had to take out their own trash.
Lauren: Do you mean that in common areas or in dorm
rooms?
Cadie: Like the way it is now, a trashcan and recycling
bin per hall and trashcans in the bathrooms.
Sarah: I just remember we would always get angry
emails about personal trash being thrown into the hall
bins.
Bob: That’s true. We’d get those too.
Sarah: Yeah so I think that would be an issue. Because
I mean our trashcans would be in the kitchen so you
would have all of the food and you’d be cooking, as
opposed to personal stuff. Though theoretically
recycling isn’t gross, right? It’s paper and empty things
right. So like maybe you could have a big bin for a
collection spot on the hall without it getting gross.
Cadie: [inaudible] in the house. Like in the big
recycling bin.
Lauren: Yeah this is true. Go DG. I swear to God
[inaudible] DG is awesome at recycling.
Cadie: Apparently ATO is whooping KDR at recycling.
Bob: Did [Shylan?] really say that we won’t get into
trouble if we put beer cans in there?
Matt: I’m not sure if it was an email from [Shylan] or
if it was like, it might have been someone doing their
own personal survey but I got some email about
recycling where that was like if we had some
centralized thing where we wouldn’t get penalized for
beer cans if that would help with recycling I said yeah
that would help so much.
Sarah: That’s smart.
Bob: I mean I know just from our standpoint, when we
have events at the house, everyone just cleans their
own rooms. So if we had a situation where, and this
can we got is BIG, like twice the size of our trash can,
we could bring that up, just stick it in the middle of the
hallway and just have everyone come out and bring
their trash and cans out, that’s very clearly recyclable
so that would get guys to stop mixing their trash then
throwing it, like when I throw that big bag into the
recycling bin I’m sure there’s stuff in there that’s not
recyclable and just got there during the party but I
figure it’s mostly cans so maybe I’m doing good, I
don’t know. But if we, if fraternities loosened that rule,
cuz right now if they find beer cans downstairs in a
common area, even in trash cans, we get an alcohol
violation. So if we lifted that, that’s why if you ever go
to events that’s why upstairs it’s so policed by the
fraternity. So if we brought a can up, throw all the cans
in there, bring it back down and have the cleaning staff
take it out, we might have something.
Matt: Yeah like at a party you make a lot of cans and
bottles of waste. And to people who live there it’s a lot.
Sarah: I think that’s one of the times I do recycle is the
next morning after I have a pregame in my aparment.
That’s when you go around picking up everything and
the majority of it is recycling, because you know most
times you have more trash. But that’s all, I don’t know.
I think what they’re saying is important. And I get it if
underage people live there if that’s the problem. It
makes sense.
Bob: I know we’d do it.
Matt: Yeah.
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38. Lauren: And what about off campus? You two live off
campus? So are there any differences or are there any
differences from when you’re off campus from when
you come to campus?
Sarah: Off campus, I live in King and Queen’s and
there’s a dumpster and there’s the recycling dumpster.
And most of the time we’re pretty good about it. But
it’s mainly the morning after cleaning, if we recycle it’s
then, or if we have a box or some deal.
Jake: Yeah I think we have to pay extra for recycling
because I live in James City County so we’re a part of
their system. I guess my housemates and I have chosen
not to pay. It’s only $20. You have to pay for the bin
and it’s a yearly service and if you’re already paying
for trash. Yeah so it’s all convenience for me because
I’m going around from class to class then I’m out. So
it’s more like if I have something on campus I’ll
recycle but when I’m at home I really have no other
option.
Sarah: I mean I care about the environment but I
wouldn’t pay an extra whatever to recycle.
Bob: We’re college students man.
Lauren: Do you have any more comments on William
& Mary? Recycling or non-recycling related?
Jake: I do think there’s a greater, I’m not saying were
going better, but I do think there’s more awareness on
this campus than on others. The student population in
terms of their consciousness I think is a little better but
at the same time if it was just more convenient then we
can act on that consciousness.
Lauren: Anything else? Well thank you for coming! We
really appreciate it.
Group 2 Transcription:
Lauren – We are going to go around the room and I
want everyone to say their name, year and an
extracurricular activity, and you can’t say basketball
and I know we have a lot of basketball players in here.
If you don’t have an extracurricular activity, it can be a
fun fact.
JULIAN– Am I going first? Alright. I’m Julian I’m a
senior, I’m a Kinies Major, and 1 fun fact about
myself…
FRED - I can think of an extracurricular activity
JULIAN - I can’t use basketball.
FRED -– hum. That sucks
JULIAN– I don’t know, I guess I know a lot of
interesting facts about any kind of sports… that’s kind
of boring
FRED - I’m Fred, I’m a senior as well. Finance Major.
My current extracurricular activity would be watching
24 on Netflix
GRANT – I’m Grant I’m a PMC History double major.
I also work as a marketing intern at the Rec center and
I manage their YouTube channel.
EMILY - I’m Emily, I’m a graduate student in public
policy. Umm.. I guess my extracurricular activity
would be I’m a graduate assistant at AidData
LUCY – Ok, I’m Lucy and I’m a senior and I’m a
marketing/ Spanish double major and I’m in DG with
Lauren.
BRIAN– I’m Brian and I’m a senior econ major and I
met Bill Murray once in a Pizzeria.
TOM- I’m Tom, I’m a Junior and outside of basketball
I lead a small group at the Williamsburg Chapel.
LAUREN– Cool, so we will start off pretty open
ended, but first I just want you to tell me about your
recycling habits.
JULIAN– So, we all live together and we have a bin
that we sometimes use for recycling, but I wouldn’t say
we actively recycle. Sometimes it gets left outside and
we get to lazy to bring it into the house.
FRED - if it overflows, then we knowingly put
recyclable items into the trash. Just because there is no
more room.
JULIAN– Yeah.
LUCY - Do you feel guilty?
FRED -– I mean what are you going to do? If there is
no more room.
LUCY – So you are a terrible person?
FRED - Yeah.. yeah
Lauren – Well, how about yourself Lucy?
LUCY– I was pretty anal in high school… like really
anal. I was on the earth society, president, so I would
stay after school and recycle everything. I remember
coming to college, my first like, fraternity party
I was just like holy shit you guys recycle
38
appendix

39. these solo cups, right? Everyone was like NO! Now
ever since college I’ve gotten a lot more relaxed about
it. I find myself finding the recycling bin full and out
of convenience I knowingly guiltlessly throw things
away. Ya, it’s a long walk to the recycling bin.
Lauren- (to Tom) – what about you?
TOM- Yeah, what they all said.
BRIAN– I live on campus and they have those blue
bins. At first it starts as a recycling bin, but then it just
becomes a generic trash bin.
EMILY - umm.. I try to recycle most things. I was also
a graduate assistant for COS which is community on
sustainability so its kind of something I feel like I
should do. I recycle most things, but Williamsburg’s
policy for recycling are pretty bad they only accept like
1 and 2 so I end up throwing away a lot of things that
could be recycled if we weren’t in Williamsburg.
Lauren – Like What?
EMILY - so like a lot of the contractors that William
and Mary hires only recognize bottle shaped plastics
even if it’s a 1 or 2. So if its not in a bottle shape the
wont recognize it. So for me its like should I put
something in recycling that doesn’t look like a bottle
that will be sorted our and likely tossed later.
Lauren – That’s good to know.
EMILY - yeah I recycle it just in case because I hope
that maybe they will take it. Maybe a different
contractor or something.
Lauren- Grant what about you?
GRANT - at home I recycled a lot. Here, though, I
don’t as much because my roommates, hall mates,
don’t recycle and its too much of a hassle to sort it all
out to but it in an actual recycling dumpster.
Lauren- Tell me more about your recycling at home or
wherever you are when you aren’t on campus.
GRANT – in general, I feel like I have a pretty good
idea of what is recyclable or not. At home we have two
bins one which is recycling and one that is non and I
am good at sorting it there. Even if it requires extra
effort like washing out a can or what have you
JULIAN– I’m from Indiana so my mom is really
organized about this stuff and we aren’t organized
about this stuff. So we have a newspaper bin and a
plastics bin so it just keeps it separate from everything
else and its just in the garage. For some reason I would
rather go to the garage and throw stuff out then when I
am here I guess I’m just too lazy to go outside then
bring the bin back to put the recycling in. I guess its
just my mom’s not watching.
LUCY – at home we recycle everything, and like my
mom, she’s really really clean and she will wash out a
salsa can or a soup can, and will literally put soap in it
and was it out before recycling it so our recycling is
pretty spotless. Yea I got used to it in high school and I
would deconstruct cardboard boxes. You fold them up
and compact them to make more room… like I would
just rip that box up until it was flat and tiny.
BRIAN- um at home I think my town only takes
plastic and cardboard so that’s what I do. Normally we
are pretty good at recycling.
TOM- yeah, my mom is pretty strict about it so like
Julian said I’m probably a little better at home than I
am here. We have the trash and the recycling and she
always keeps it organized.
Lauren- Thinking of the typical William and Mary
student What do you think their recycling habits are?
GRANT - very little, especially in all the dorms where
there is the one bin they give you that says recycling
inside of it… its going to be a trash bin before it’s a
recycling bin.
BRIAN- I think a good amount of people recycle the
bottles because there are the blue bins around campus
and that seems like the most convenient way to recycle
or must used recycling outlet.
TOM- I would agree with that.
LUCY - I think people recycle as much as possible, but
they aren’t going to kill themselves over it or whatever
or go out of their way, and um another thing is
whenever people have parties there is just a ton of
recyclable stuff the next morning and they toss it
probably because it is convenient. There are a lot of
solo cups and people done rinse and recycle them… I
feel like they just use one giant trash bag.
FRED - so in order to recycle solo cups are you
supposed to wash them out?
EMILY - you don’t really have to wash anything, but
sometimes it will sit in a place for a while and get
really nasty
Lauren- So how much do you know about recycling on
campus, like what can be recycled and what can’t be
recycles?
39
appendix

40. EMILY - I know that it costs, at least it did during
orientation and they handed out these bags where it
told you where you could recycle on your own so you
can recycle, pens, ink cartridges, plastic bags. Pretty
much anything that can be recycles, there is
somewhere on campus to do it, its just there isn’t a lot
of information about it for people.
BRIAN- Isn’t Swem like..
EMILY - printer cartridges, yeah they take printer
cartridges.
Lauren- Where in swem though?
EMILY - Um right in the entrance there is this little
box you can put them in. Batteries too.
BRIAN- I’m pretty bad about recycling batteries. It’s a
good thing to do because the lithium just sits in the
landfill forever.
EMILY - Definitely don’t recycle batteries the wrong
way
LUCY - I had two printer cartridges on my desk the
entire year last year so I was trying to figure out what
to do with them so at the end of the year I just tossed
them
Lauren- so what else do you know about recycling
LUCY – no much, I know its just gotta’ go in the blue
bin, and I know that pizza boxes are a big no, you cant
recycle that, and milk cartons you can’t recycle those,
right?
EMILY - yeah, you can’t but a lot of people do.
JULIAN– so they just end up throwing it away?
EMILY - yeah essentially, its not because its cardboard
because its not cardboard, well it is cardboard but it
absorbs food so it will actually mess up a whole batch
LUCY - so do they throw the whole batch out? If I put
a pizza box in a huge batch of perfectly clean
recyclables it will not recycle anything?
EMILY - That really depends. See I’ve always
wondered that and it makes me super paranoid but
some contractors will just toss the whole bag if there is
one bad thing, but also now days they have very
modern sorting machines like they have cameras that
will identify.. but that goes back to the whole bottle
shape thing so they know what goes in and what
doesn’t go out
Lauren- So what do you see as the main barriers?
EMILY - Personally I went to another undergrad it
was… I guess you could say green in comparison and I
think one of the main reasons was convenience I think
all of the dorm rooms and rooms had places to recycle
and access to recycling printer cartridges, batteries,
pens and everything. All of the dining halls had
compost vs non compost recycling and all the utensils
were all recyclable so in that respect it was a lot easier
for people to be conscious about it vs here.
EMILY – I know for me, I live in Jamestown and the
walk for the recycling is kind of a haul so a lot of times
ill just try to shove it into that little blue bin right
outside but the hole is really small so I don’t know. It’s
a long walk it’s a huge barrier.
JULIAN - I don’t usually recycle when im on campus
when I recycle it would be if I had a coke bottle or
something and I could put it in the bin but other than
that I don’t know that much about WM recycling. I
didn’t know you cant recycle a pizza box
LUCY - I feel like a lot of people don’t know that
FRED - yeah we consistently put pizza in the
recycling… now we will have more room! For all of
our other stuff
Lauren – So what kind of things do you think would
make recycling more convenient?
EMILY - having the big blue bins near every door, I
know I have talked to my roommate and they talk
about how you can put one closer to Jamestown dorm
like by the ISC and near that door. I feel like there has
to be some place closer
Fred - I don’t know how much this would work but if
you sent out an educational email id probably delete it
and im sure lots of you guys would too and we are
obviously not educated about it with the pizza boxes
and milk cartons
LUCY - or do something with orientation just make it
one of the meetings you have to go to. You could do
one about recycling…
LUCY - or in move in they can give you a list
EMILY – I think they try but there is bureaucratic stuff
that gets in the way of issues like that but I definitely
agree for education on what can and can not be
recycled.
LUCY– actually an obvious was would be to
put a sign that says no pizza boxes, no milk
40
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41. cartons above the recycling bins for common things
that people recycle that don’t work. You could do that
Lauren, just take cardboard and write on it
BRIAN - I was abroad last year and my hall had 4 bins
in the kitchen, one for cans one for class and cardboard
or whatever and it’s a lot of bins ya know but the
school paid for it so it seemed like we knew the rules
without anyone telling us what the rules were
LUCY – sometimes those bins make me mad though.. I
don’t know I just want to put all my recycling in one
place
FRED– I agree with that because down in the café they
have those bins and I will knowingly put a can in the
wrong bin because I am upset with them
LUCY – its obnoxious and annoying
FRED - Yeah
Lauren – It’s overwhelming?
LUCY – Yeah! There are like 5 different holes.
FRED– It’s confusing
JULIAN - How is it confusing?
FRED– it just shouldn’t be like that
Lauren – So what would you rather see?
FRED– Just one place to put it
LUCY – with nothing to read
FRED– A green triangle
Lauren – How could you raise awareness then?
LUCY - I think signs… orientation… maybe like
shaming… “I saw that bottle go in there”
FRED - looks at coke* so it this a 2?
EMILY - um it should say on the bottom its either a 1
or a 2. That can be recycles but you cant recycle the
cap and not very many people know that
LUCY – sometimes I leave the cap on and just recycle
it out of laziness do you think that makes a big
difference. Are they going to toss the whole batch?
EMILY - that’s the thing they aren’t going to unscrew
them
JULIAN– I leave the cap on every time
LUCY – how about beer bottle caps?
EMILY – no
LUCY – Corks?
EMILY – I don’t know about corks.. some places like I
went to undergrad in Philly and you can recycle
aluminum there but you cant in most places in Virginia
LUCY - y aim from Richmond and I’m pretty sure we
used to be able to recycle milk cartons and other boxes
but recently they came out and gave everyone a letter
and said they are no longer accepting milk cartons so
maybe they changed contractors. That makes sense
though because who wants bad milk
EMILY - yeah and its also about the wax in the carton
LAUREN– what do you guys think? It’s kinda quiet
over here. (To Tom and Brian)
TOM – yeah, I honestly don’t know anything about
recycling to be honest to you, all of this is new to me
LUCY – Why is he even here , I know why we are here
but like…
Lauren- you don’t have to know it
LUCY – I’m along for the ride because I know you
two
Lauren – Since you don’t know a lot about recycling
what would help you learn?
TOM- I think what she said about the signs would help
with no Pizza boxes, no milk cartons and things like
that. Because ya, I had no idea
LUCY – Just have RA’s talk about it and send it out.
Just like welcome back and say the rules. People would
probably delete it but whatever
BRIAN – I think there are better ways to address
recycling than setting everyone down to tell them,
because no one listens to that stuff that much especially
when you are a freshman you are taking in all sorts of
other info and that just goes over your head
Lauren – what do you think would be a better avenue?
BRIAN – I don’t know I think it should just be
something that is engrained and its hard to teach that
maybe a less cursory approach and focus on
recycling as a whole in the more vital part of
41
appendix

42. campus
EMILY– we could definitely try doing something like
a trash sort I know places have done this where they
take a normal thing of trash, take it to a public place
and show people what can and cannot be recycled its
more of an educational sort of thing. We used to do that
as an undergrad as people walked to and from class.
For 30 seconds you learn one or 2 things about
recycling
LAURA – maybe do it on the terrace with a table
FRED– if President R did an educational video I’d
watch it every time
Lauren – Do you see any other changes you would like
to see at William and Mary?
*Silence
Lauren – think of the barriers you mentioned before
and how William and Mary could help with those
barriers?
GRANT – lets go back to the dorms. If they only give
you one bin for recycling its going to turn into a trash
bin. If they give you two bins, clearly label one make it
black and put trash on the side of it and another one
clearly labeled for recycling people will use them for
the correct purpose
LUCY – that really funny because I have three trash
cans in my room, I like to match all of my stuff
GRANT – I just feel like people forget trash bins so
they just use recycling bins as trash bins.. especially in
my experiences
Lauren – Do you see any other changes from William
and Mary?
LUCY – Move recycling bins closer to dorms!
JULIAN– I feel like if they had recycling stations in
main parts of the campus I think
LUCY– Like on my way to class if I could take out the
recycling I would definitely do it
JULIAN– Maybe like 5 spots maybe that would help
Lauren – Like recycling hubs
JULIAN– Maybe that would help but I don’t know
LUCY – Like the big blue bins. The massive ones
Lauren – So how do you think that would change the
behaviors of students?
LUCY– If its more convenient like on my way to class
I would do it
FRED – I think that maybe, but I don’t know because I
only go to a few places on campus but it seems to me
that there are more trash cans than recycling bins.
What if they had for every trash can they was a
recycling bin? If its cold and I have to hang on to this
thing Im going to just throw it away if recycling is 100
yards away so I can get rid of it. I think a 1 to 1 ratio
would help draw attention to the fact that campus is
trying to recycle
JULIAN– I think on campus recycling is all about the
convenience. The more convenient the more people
will recycle
BRIAN – I think a lot of it has to do with the dining
halls like I remember my freshman year the café had a
compost bin that they got rid of the next year
LUCY – I don’t think people know how to use
compost bins
EMILY – I think they internally compost now because
people were doing it wrong so the staff now does it
Lauren – Any other last words of wisdom
GRANT – in terms of dining halls I think the market
place is much less recycling friendly I feel like I
always see them taking out huge bags of trash all the
time. Maybe the compost it later but I’m not sure that
is always true
LUCY – now everyone has to get a disposable and
there aren’t any reusable forks.
GRANT – they used to have trays but they got rid of
them.
LUCY - if you sit down to eat at the market place you
still will have a disposable container
GRANT - so many cups, like disposable ones
Lauren – anything else?
42
appendix

43. Appendix 5
43
appendix

44. 44
appendix

45. 45
appendix

46. Table 1
Table 2
46
appendix

47. 47
appendix

48. Table 3
Table 4
48
appendix

49. Figure 5
49
appendix