Assignment 7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Valet recycling services for apartment complexes/businesses

• Opportunity:

• Lack of options for convenient and accessible recycling for apartment complexes/businesses.
  
  

• The who: Florida residents living in apartment complexes/business owners
• The what: The recycling rate is decreasing, thus causes harm to the environment
• The why: Lack of convenient and accessible recycling options
  
  
• Testing the who: Not just Floridians have this need; recycling needs to occur at a much greater rate than what it is all over the world.  The “who” is not limited to a specific gender or age. A lot of apartment complexes/businesses do not have a convenient way to recycle. Many don’t even have receptacles on site as an option.
• Testing the what: According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a statewide weight-based recycling goal of 75% was set by 2020. Since not meeting the interim goals established for Florida in 2016 of 60%, the recycling rate has continued to decline. In fact, the recycling rate for Florida was 49% in 2018 (www.floridadep.gov). Recycling rates are decreasing because there are not convenient, feasible ways to do so.
• Testing the why: The lack of adequate options to conveniently be able to recycle in apartment complexes/businesses is very unclear to me. As the years pass, our world is becoming increasingly aware of the negative effects not recycling can have on our environment. We know that recycling benefits the environment by conserving energy, reduces waste and pollution, conserves natural resources, and saves landfill space.
  
  
• Interview #1:
• In this interview, I spoke with a woman who lives and works (leasing agent) in an apartment complex. When discussing with her why valet trash services are offered at a monthly fee and valet recycling is not, she stated that “trash is viewed more as a necessity.” She also mentioned that there was not enough space on the property for both. I suggested to her that there could at least be a few receptacles for recycling. She again mentioned the issue of space. However, went on to state that there have been individuals within the community that have requested options to recycle.
  
  
• Interview #2:
• This interview was with an individual similar to someone I had interviewed in Assignment 4A. I wanted to interview another woman like her because I was curious to see if my findings would be the same. Both women live in apartment complexes and don’t have an option to recycle but wish they did. This particular individual expressed how she feels that there is definitely a need to have an option to recycle. She stated that she feels like most people will not go out of their way just to recycle.

• Interview #3:
• This interviewee was an older woman who has recycling services at her residence but does not at her place of work. She stated that she is very passionate about recycling. She informed me that she keeps a trash can in the back room of her workplace and asks her co-workers to put items to be recycled in it. When the bin gets full, she takes it home to recycle the items with hers that is picked up weekly. She expressed, both, her concern and disgust about the number of individuals who do not recycle.
  
  
• Interview #4:

This interviewee is a business owner. She stated that she doesn’t have the option to recycle at her business currently. She also stated that she does take large items of cardboard, etc to a local recycling dumpster. However, they don’t do that often. Mostly because this facility has restrictions on what they will accept. She did say that she takes water bottles and such home to recycle. She also mentioned that where her business is located, there are residential homes located next to her that do have recycling pickup. However, the city will not allow for pickup from the business, because the property is zoned as a business. When I asked her how she felt about paying for a scheduled monthly pickup service, she said she wouldn’t mind and would really like that.

• Interview #5:
• This interviewee lives in a rural residential area where recycling is not available. He only has trash pickup once a week. Due to this fact, he constantly finds himself separating the plastic and cardboard out to save space. He stated that he does take these items elsewhere to be recycled. I asked the same question of this gentleman as I did the business owner and they both stated that they would be more than willing to pay a fee to have their recycling picked up weekly.
  
  
• Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 
• The first interview was interesting to me, because I couldn’t understand how there is not enough space on the apartment complex property to provide an option to recycle. It appeared to be more of an issue of not knowing what to do or having services available to handle what was actually being recycled. I was definitely shocked by her response of “trash being more of a necessity” than recycling. Especially being that majority, if not all, of the items we are throwing in the trash are recyclable.
• The second, third and fourth interviews confirmed my thoughts even further about there being a need to have a valet trash service available to apartment complexes and businesses. They are truly individuals who care about this matter.   
• The last interview made me think about rural residential areas also. They too have a need like businesses and apartment complexes.