7A- Testing the Hypothesis part 1

The best opportunity that I want to choose out of the very many problems I've presented in this class is plastic. We need to change the amount of plastic an average American uses versus how much they recycle due to either a lack of knowledge about plastic or just plain laziness.
The who: average Americans.
The what: Changing the amount of plastic the average American uses versus how much they recycle.
The why: Either lack of knowledge or just plain laziness
 I have interviewed five people about the use of plastic ranging from eight people homes to a single apartment college kid.

The first interview is William John Crockett the fourth a junior staying at UNF. I asked him how much does he recycle and he responded with as much as possible. He told me there are recycling bins all across campus so it is quite easy for him to recycle as its almost harder to not recycle. I asked him if he knew a lot of students that liked to recycle and he said a good bit of students go out of their way to recycle plastics 1 and 2. He also said a lot of students couldn't care less about recycling and has seen students throw waste into the recycle bins. I asked him what classification of plastic does he throw away the most and he responded with mainly 1 and 2 but occasionally he gets the chance to recycle other kinds of plastic. I also asked him why? Why does he recycle even though other people. He responded with he likes recycling no matter how big or small he feels like his contribution is making a difference. Any chance he gets he will try to educate people on the harmfulness of plastic when it gets to the land fill as opposed to getting recycled.

 The second person I interviewed is a traveling conversion team lead for Builders FirstSource. As a traveling conversion team lead Mr. Sanders has seen a lot of plastic when it comes to traveling. He said airports normally have recycle bins which makes it easy for him to recycle there. A lot of the hotels he stays in also offer recycling but some do not. Every chance he gets he will recycle but some times he can not. I asked him if any of his team members feel the same way about recycling and he said some do. At the beginning of every new wave each team has to do a team building exercise and he said since some of his team members don't share our belief he will find a river or ocean front and have the team run out and pick up as much trash as possible and the person with most amount of plastic will win a gift card. I told him this was a great idea and I loved how he got everyone involved and hopefully the team members will take this value to their home and spread it. I asked him why not as many people in airports, hotels , or even states care about recycling like we do. He responded that ignorance is bliss. They don't care that every pace of plastic they throw away will sit in a land fill for five hundred years as long as it is out of their hands it's not their problem anymore.

The third person I interviewed was Angela Pickett. Shes a mom of four who has both her mother and mother in law staying at her house. Collectively they generate almost double the amount of plastic my family will create. I asked her if she recycled at all and she said not at all. She doesn't know where to take her recyclables since none of our dumps recycle and she thought her trash pick up Advanced Disposal did not offer recycling services which they do. I asked her now that she knows its possible will she start recycling and she said of course she will because as a large family like that they can put a small dent in how much plastic is wasted. She said after this phone call she would go online to look at Advanced Disposals recycling options. I asked her now with this new view point on her possibility of recycling would she start spreading the word to everyone in her community. She said of course she would and that she can't wait to get that green "for mother earth" trash can.

The fourth person I interviewed is a construction worker name Elijah Rayburn. As a construction worker he definitely sees his fair share of plastic and other kinds of recyclables. I asked him if his company, project manager, or if even he recycled and said no to all. They are under such a time crunch right now that he said recycling is so far from everybody's mind. Then I explained what it would mean to the earth and the future humans who walked this planet and he kind of started to see where I was coming from. I asked once things start to slow back down that in one of the general meetings every morning to bring it up as an idea and show them what it really means to the environment. He said that was a great idea and that he him when given the opportunity will throw his plastic away in the recycle bins in certain gas stations in Ponte Vedra beach. I asked him if anyone in his family or even his union recycled and he said not to his knowledge but that he will try to change that to the best of his ability.

The fifth person I interviewed is a PCT at St Vincent's Riverside Medical Center. As a PCT Kristen Godbold as seen her fair share of plastic. When I asked her if she recycles at home she said no. When I asked her if she recycles at her work she said yes she tries to every chance she gets. I asked her if any of her co workers also recycles and she said yes because it is convenient to since there are recycle bins in hot spots around the hospital. I asked her why she does not recycle at home then and she said no one in her family has ever wanted to recycle and she also did not know that Advanced Disposal has a recycle bin. I told her to let her family know what kind of impact they can have on their environment if her and her family would start to recycle at home. Kristen also said that she would talk to all of her friends and try to convey how important recycling really is,
I now know that my trash pick up Advanced Disposal offers a recycling bin thanks to my conversation with Mrs Pickett. Hopefully anyone reading this will also maybe just do some research on plastic and maybe even start recycling with the rest of us. This was actually a really fun exercise and I learned a lot of good information.