1. Increasing Awareness for Cell Phone/Electronic Recycling Programs
- 1.14 Electronic Recycling Program- Billy
- 1.1. What
- 1.2. Why this action makes things more sustainable?
- 1.3. How
- 1.3.1. "Cradle to Cradle" design
- 1.3.2. Questions for the unified survey
- 1.3.3. Analysis of the results in the survey
- 1.3.4. Incentives
- 1.3.5. Relationship with the "Sustainability Club" (SC)
- 1.3.6. How will this action be sustained when you are not here?
- 1.3.7. Document format
- 1.3.8. Copyright license of your report
- 1.4. Time-sheet / Chronogram
- 1.5. References & Links
- 1.6. Students involved in this action
1.1. What
I will be working to continue the IES action of helping students recycle cell phones after they are done with the semester, as IES requires students to have a cell phone prior to beginning the semester just in case they need to be reached in case of an emergency. I will also be working to try to expand this program, so that students will also be able to recycle phone chargers, batteries, etc. directly through IES. Mostly, I will be working to ensure that the cell-phone recycling programs offered through IES will be better advertised to students, as I wasn't even aware of this until researching this for Sustainability class. The recycling programs aren't listed in the student handbook sent out prior to arriving in Barcelona under the cell phone policy rules. I will attempt to increase the awareness of this program by advertising it through flyers.
1.2. Why this action makes things more sustainable?
This action makes IES more sustainable for several reasons. First, if students are made more aware of phone recycling programs, they will be more likely to purchase a cheaper, recycled phone. Therefore, with the correct advertising, the success of the recycling action will be greatly increased. Since having a cell phone is mandatory for IES students, creating awareness for these recycling programs through advertising will encourage students to buy recycled phones, thus allowing the IES program as a whole to become more sustainable by purchasing less new cell phones and accessories than before. This change in awareness by the students because of advertising will lead them to communicate the benefits of this program to future students, and a reinforcing loop appears. This will in turn create long term effects of higher awareness and use of these recycling programs.
This action also is a "Cradle to Cradle" design. The used electronics (waste) will become food again for the process of students buying cell phones. Instead of simply throwing away phones and electronics, this "waste" will be reused again by future students ("food"). This is further discussed in section 1.3.1.
1.2.1. SWOT Analysis
Strengths More awareness will lead students to use the program more often than before
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Advertising that students may save money by purchasing a recycled phone/recycling their old phone will positively impact the success of the recycling action | |
Weaknesses Some students may ignore the flyers on the wall
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Not all IES students will be invited to the Facebook page, because I am not Facebook friends with all of them | |
Opportunities
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I can use the ecoeuro system to provide incentive to students to recycle their phones | |
Students spend a lot of time in IES hallways, therefore have plenty of opportunities to see and read the flyers | |
Students are often on Facebook, so they are easily contacted through the Facebook page | |
Threats IES abroad may not allow the addition of text regarding phone recycling into the welcome packet |
(see free_SWOT_analysis_template.pdf)
1.2.2. Feedback loops
A feedback loop that occurs in this action is when increased awareness of the recycling programs through advertising will lead to an increase in communication of the program within groups of friends (+). This will come back and therefore increase the awareness of the recycling programs (+). This is a reinforcing loop because both awareness and communication within friends increase each other.
1.2.3. Potential Benefits
Short term benefits: The short term benefit of this action is to increase the awareness of the recycling programs endorsed by IES. If the awareness is increased, usage of the program will increase immediately.
Long term benefits: If these recycling programs are better advertised, more students will use them. Students will be pleased with the positive effects of this program, and word will spread to future students that this program is beneficial both economically and sustainably speaking. Future use of these programs will grow, until hopefully a majority of students use recycled phones.
1.2.4. Potential Costs
Costs will be incurred when IES prints student manuals next year with the added text about how recycling programs are useful. However, this cost would be incurred anyways because IES needs to print these books every year anyways. It will cost an IES Abroad Staff member a few minutes to add the text into the computer document that is sent out to students each semester prior to arrival. It will not cost anything to create the flyers, because the paper used will be reused paper that IES students have already used.
1.3. How
The IES abroad program mentions in the welcome guide and also in the student manual given at the beginning of the semester that students must have a cell phone in order to be reached in case of emergency. However, under the cell phone rules, nothing is mentioned about the potential for recycled cell phones, so I will propose to IES the addition of this information for future volumes of welcome packets. Also, I will be printing flyers out to advertise using recycling programs for the end of this semester.
1.3.1. "Cradle to Cradle" design
This design is "Cradle to Cradle" ready. There are not many materials used. The paper from the flyers will be reused from paper already used by IES students. In this way, we apply the "waste=food" principle to our inflow of resources as well. After the semester, the flyers will be able to be reused in future semesters for the same or a similar action. Thus, the "waste" created by this action becomes food for future semesters.
IES abroad sends out welcome packets through the mail prior to students' arrival each semester. These welcome packets are digital, so no waste will be created by adding a few lines of text to them for next semester. The physical welcome packets handed out to students during orientation are made out of paper, and will be able to be recycled at the end of the semester (similar to the flyers), and will become food again for the process of the production of paper.
The Facebook page is also a "cradle to cradle" design. Instead of the Facebook page becoming information loss after I leave, I will appoint a future IES student as administrator for the page so that the group can be reused as "food" for a future semester rather than becoming obsolete, and therefore "waste." Here is a link to the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_158177757577631&ap=1.
Also, encouraging students to recycle phones will create food from waste. Instead of throwing out the waste (cell phones), it will become food once again by having it be recycled and then used again by future students.
Lastly, the copyright license I am using allows this action to be a "Cradle to Cradle" design. I am using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, so future students will be able to view, use, and edit my action to further increase its effectiveness in the future. Therefore, we will not suffer information loss, thus creating waste, because students will be able to use this information in the future and also change it to benefit the action.
1.3.2. Questions for the unified survey
The questions that were included in this semester's survey are:
Do you plan on taking your electric cords with European outlets back home to the United States with you?
Have you bought any appliances in Barcelona that you know you will not be taking home with you?
Throughout my designing and implementation of this action, I have thought of better questions that would give myself much better information related to this action. For future semesters, I would instead ask these two questions:
Were you aware of potential cell-phone recycling programs prior to purchasing a phone in Barcelona?
Are you aware that you may recycle your cell phone after the semester (if you will not bring it back to your home country) instead of simply throwing it away?
1.3.3. Analysis of the results in the survey
Do you plan on taking your electric cords with European outlets back home to the United States with you?
2 no answer %10.00
9 no %45.00
9 yes %45.00
Around half of respondents answered that they would not be taking electrical cords with European outlets back home to the United States. Instead of having these students throw these cords out like normal, these cords could be recycled.
Have you bought any appliances in Barcelona that you know you will not be taking home with you?
6 no %30.00
1 phone %5.00
13 yes %65.00
Many students will not be taking home certain appliances with them. Therefore, with the knowledge of recycling programs, students will recycle their appliances rather than creating waste and simply throwing the appliances out.
However, only 20 students answered this survey out of several hundred IES students, so these results cannot be generalized to the average IES student. Also, the students that participated in this survey were more likely to be conscious about negative impacts on the environment, so this could have affected the results as well.
1.3.4. Incentives
Students will earn 10 EcoEuros for recycling a phone. Students will also gain an incentive by saving money by buying a recycled phone, and also by gaining money when selling the phone back.
As for advertising when I am not here any longer, I will still be the administrator of the Facebook group, so I will send periodic Facebook messages out to the members reminding and encouraging them about the benefits of using recycled cell phones and electronics.
1.3.5. Relationship with the "Sustainability Club" (SC)
I posted on the Sustainability Club website that students will be awarded with 10 EcoEuros for recycling a phone.
Also, I conferred with the president of the sustainability club, Solomon, and we decided that the following text would be appropriate for inclusion into the welcome packet sent to all IES Abroad students underneath IES Abroad Cell Phone Policy:
While enjoying your time abroad, please consider cell phone recycling programs. Recycled cell phones are a cheap alternative to purchasing new cell phones, and it cuts down on waste created by students. Also, used cell phones may be sold back at the end of the semester to these same programs to be further reused and recycled. Please refer to the websites below for further information:
http://www.recellulartoo.com
http://www.yourenew.com
1.3.6. How will this action be sustained when you are not here?
This action will be sustained when I am not in Barcelona anymore because the welcome packets sent and given to students in the future will have the text in them advertising how students can recycle phones and appliances. The person in charge of sending out these packets is Matthew Rader from the IES Abroad Chicago office. His email address is mrader at IESabroad.org. This way, students in the future will be aware of the recycling program before they arrive at school. Also, a student in the future in Sustainability class may choose my action to further continue it in the future. Due to my copyright license, they will be able to edit and improve upon my action.
As for the Facebook page, since I must appoint another person as "administrator" of the group to pass down the group, I will allow any future IES student to contact me and request that I make them the administrator of the group so that they can continue the action. I will also post on the IES abroad Facebook page next semester advertising my Facebook group, so that a future student can take over for me when I am gone.
1.3.7. Document format
The flyer designed for this action is a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file. This type of file can be edited with FLOSS tools, such as OpenOffice, without losing the layout. This will contribute to the sustainability of this action because future students will be able to use my flyer, or build upon it and improve it for a future action.
Electronics Recycling Flyer
1.3.8. Copyright license of your report
CC-BY-SA Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License so my work can remain sustainable and remain free for anyone to modify in the future.
1.4. Time-sheet / Chronogram
I have put up flyers in IES advertising different options for recycling appliances at the end of the year
August 2011- Students will be sent welcome packets for the Fall semester with the added text related to recycled phone programs
Fall Semester 2011- I will appoint a student next semester as administrator of the Facebook group so he/she can reuse information I have already posted, as well as add their own. Students will be able to view and edit this action because of my Copyright License, and they can also use and edit the flyer that is posted on the Sustainability course wiki page.
1.5. References & Links
DirectGov. "Electrical equipment: reuse and disposal." http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Wasteandrecycling/DG_069060.
Krieger, Jack. "Electronics recycling program." IES Barcelona Sustainability Wiki. December 12, 2010.
Mickle, Annie. "Recycling Electronic Appliances." IES Barcelona Sustainability Wiki. December 12, 2010.
RecelluarToo. http://www.recellulartoo.com. Accessed on April 2, 2011.
YouRenew. http://www.yourenew.com. Accessed on April 2, 2011.
1.6. Students involved in this action
Billy Vydra is the leader of this action. He has created flyers to advertise recycling phones at the end of the semester. He has also asked IES to add the text to the welcome packet regarding cell phone recycling. However, he has not received a definitive answer because he is corresponding by email with the IES Chicago office, as they are the ones in charge of sending out the welcome packets. He is corresponding with Matthew Rader, who's email address is mrader at IESabroad.org.
Assignment 4: Peer review form
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Grades for this action report (From the PROFESSOR)