Municipal Solid Waste Reduction Project

The Class

I took a course titled Community Immersion in which I studied the for-profit, non-profit, and government sectors of my local community through the lens of systems thinking. Throughout the class, we met many different people who play important roles in the community. Many of them related to the health and well being of the environment, which influenced my project.

Visiting the Landfill

As part of the Community Immersion class, we visited the Rowan County Landfill.

They happen to be in the middle of constructing a new cell for depositing trash generated by the county.

When a cell is full, it is covered with dirt and other materials in accordance with protocols and becomes a hill.

Visioning

Our class decided that, with systems thinking, we could reduce the amount of waste created at our school campus. Because we were a new school, any waste reductions we made through strategic improvement projects in the first year would scale as the school grew. We believed our impact could be significant in just over a few years.

We created a vision statement and project goal.

Our Vision Statement

Our Goal

Background Research and Analysis

We researched best practices and brainstormed ways to apply those practices to our school.

We determined who our stakeholders were. We then surveyed them to determine their commitment and interest in our possible projects.

Stakeholder

Stakeholder Analysis

Survey

Survey Results

Project Selection Spreadsheet

We determined which projects would have the greatest impact and desirability with the lowest effort/cost to implement.

To know if we met our goal, we had to determine a baseline for the amount of trash created daily. After learning about sampling processes, we decided to sort and weigh the trash twice a week for 10 weeks to create a baseline.

We had to sort trash as part of determining the baseline.

And we had to weight that trash so we had actually numerical data to work with.

Pictured above is some of the trash we sorted.

My Role

I was responsible for the project that procured soap dispensers for the school bathrooms. I started by mapping out all the steps of the project, estimating how long each step might take, and ordering the steps to ensure I completed the project on time. The result was a Gantt chart I could follow throughout the project.

Copy of Baxter - Gantt

Preparing the Project

In order to prepare for the project, I had to develop a budget and determine a way to get funding for the project. During the project, the scope was expanded to include the installation of hand dryers which meant revisiting the budget in fundraising strategy. In order to secure funding I had to write a grant. I had never written a grant before so it was a learning experience.

Thankfully I had very supportive teachers and was able to work with the school's Director of Annual Giving. I also had to prepare a presentation to present to the grant foundation. In the end, the grant was awarded by the Blanch and Julian Robertson Family Foundation, an organization that Salisbury Academy has never received money from despite numerous attempts.

Grant Application Information

The Grant Application draft document.

Salisbury_Academy_Grant_Presentation.pptx

The slide deck used in the presentation at the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation offices.

The Final Outcome

At the end of the year my class again took measurements of the waste our school produced. Using similar sampling techniques to the baseline measurements, we found that we had reduced the amount of daily waste by 45% percent. The result of all the class' projects together allowed us to exceed our goal by 80%.

Life Skills

Throughout this project, I believe I displayed the qualities of a motivated student. I took on a more active role in my learning during this class with my teachers guiding me along the way. I had to manage my time effectively to get things done. There were challenges with this especially when I had to rely on an external organization or something and they didn't match my timeline which resulted in the project completion date being pushed back multiple times. As a result of this project, I feel I have acquired new skills and a mindset about projects that will greatly benefit me in the future.

This whole project was about reducing trash which is why I believe I had to be a compassionate citizen. This class and this project gave me a much better understanding of why taking care of the environment is so important. Visiting the landfill made me realize just how much people need to work on managing their waste in a productive manner that prevents so much from going to the landfill. From this project and class, I will walk away with a clear idea of how I can continue to help my community and environment long into the future.

I also believe that I was a resilient individual throughout this project. I had to make adaptations to my work plan and budget. The grant that was awarded was only half the amount I applied for which meant I had to figure out a solution. The pricing on some hand dryers and soap dispensers that we originally selected became unattainable.

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