Why is it important for one to keep the environment clean and safe? Why do some people don’t care about the thrown trash they see on the ground? When people on AUS Campus pass by an area that has a lot of trash accumulated, the question here is when someone sees trash does it affect them emotionally for instance?
As for some people, trash does not seem like a big deal, probably because they have not lived in an environment where it is dirty. There are people who indeed regard the responsibility of disposing trash is on others like the Cleanco. Moreover, the act of dumping trash is a deep-rooted thing that becomes part of our daily patterns that we tend to virtually not notice it. Trash, in general, distracts from the natural beauty of the environment.
My project investigates the viewing of others of the trash thrown on the ground. The values that are diminished are respect and responsibility which justifies that people, particularly, AUS students are not concerned about the environment. This report discusses the importance of cleaning the environment and being aware of the negative consequences of littering. The solution I came up with is the awareness campaign that has posters and a website promotion to motivate AUS students to be responsible for disposing trash. Hence, the ideas that I have generated from people served a good purpose for taking this opportunity further to encourage AUS students to be well aware of the consequences of littering. In addition, to inform them that you can make a difference if you take the resposnibilty of disposing trash thoughtfully.
How did the story of Trash start at the American University of Sharjah? AUS, a university in Sharjah, is littered with trash across certain places like the bus stop or the parking area. Although there are garbage cans in the vicinity, there is still remaining litter on the ground. Meanwhile, there is a lack of awareness about cleaning trash in AUS as people still do litter without knowing that it creates a problem. Cleanco, the cleaning services company, are obliged to clean even the surfaces of the grounds since AUS students they wait for other to clean after them. However, even though if the cleaners they were given the job to collect the trash, does not mean the responsibility is fully dependant on who is given the duty to do so. We, as Students must take into consideration that it’s the responsibility for whoever throws trash on the ground.
Some AUS students who litter might believe others namely, Cleanco are held to be responsible to pick up trash. This becomes a problem particularly more and more people share this mindset. However, it’s not the right way to stick to that mentality.
As stated prior, the problem lies in human behavior and attitudes toward how they think of trash in a mistaken manner. Generally, people don’t look after things that deal with environmental issues even to the extent if it causes pollution. That’s why there should be a way to tackle this problem which is not only increasing awareness but also engaging students to encourage others for disposing of trash.
Ultimately the way someone’s is raised is what causes a problem which influences their behavior. Since people have different upbringings, one should strive towards equalizing this, better informing AUS students on the consequences incorrectly throwing that piece of trash.
Although littering exists in AUS, there are students who are not aware enough or don’t see the bigger picture of what that trash might then cause. Also, an investigation on why people don’t care about the environment made me want to explore the subject further. This area of interest, particularly finding out why people behave in this way, made me want to search on the reasons that might cause others to follow this behavior. I felt the place needed respect, even though some did not see that trash is thrown on Campus. I think it traces back to their cultural background where they are not taught that throwing trash and leaving the responsibility for others to clean after you is a completely ridiculous matter.
One of the reasons that I wanted to explore more about the topic is not only about seeing trash on AUS Campus and the effect of it, but also that some people find it funny for an activist to talk about the environment and how they are driven to do something about it. People who want to be part of a great cause, including myself, wish to raise awareness about taking care of the environment.Because of these reasons, I thought of a solution that perhaps changes people’s perspective about taking care of the environment. Thus, part of my solution is informing people about the importance of individual responsibility towards picking trash.
One hypothesis, called the “attention restoration theory,” argues that spending environments can be beneficial for our mental health. The theory suggests that coastlines, as with other idyllic environments, make people happier, calmer, and more refreshed. But when the trappings of human culture degrade these natural scenes, says Wyles, suddenly those landscapes lose their value as potential mood enhancers (Goldman,2015).
I’m not just talking about the impact of litter on the environment or the risk it poses to wildlife. It’s the underlying carelessness that infuriates me, the casual disdain for the common weal — private wealth and public squalor. I haven’t become some frothing-at-the-mouth advocate of more public spending, but I do think we could be better custodians of our shared spaces.
Why littering is infuriating?
Litter has the potential to cause harm to human health, safety, welfare, as well as the environment. The harmful impact of litter includes trapping or poisoning animals, killing aquatic life directly through choking and indirectly through its impact on water quality. Littering can be a fire hazard and it attracts pests and rodents. Litter carry germs and rats are carriers of many types of diseases that make people ill. Litter also cause accidents as drivers try to avoid litter on the road. Young children fall on litter in playgrounds and can get injured.
Litter also harms plants, vegetation and natural areas. There are several factors that may impact on littering behaviour. These include inconvenience and laziness, absence of ownership or pride for the area, feeling that someone else will pick it up, number, placement and appearance of litter bins at or near the site, absence of realistic penalties, legislation enforcement, lack of social pressure and lack of knowledge of the environmental impacts of littering.
. pectations, he says: Change these, and you’ll change people’s behavior
ple are likely to do what they think is expected of them. It’s about norms and ex -
studies in littering and litter prevention—all of them pointing to the fact that peo -
tions of those around us,” said Cialdini, who has conducted a number of landmark
One of the things that’s fundamental to human nature is that we imitate the ac”
ground
trash on the
Why it’s so tempting to throw
"Solid wastes" are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society. This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem."
Jimmy Carter
“When a flower doesn’t bloom you, fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”Alexander Den Heijer
Stakeholder are people involved who are affected by the situation.
Personas are characters involved which they give suggestion on how their behavior,attitudes. Also, documenting what they think ,say, feel and hear about things.
The aim of this project is to educate AUS students to be responsible for disposing trash.
sight of the negative consequences of littering.
To develop a design-led solution that gives students a better in -
veys into how people react towards seeing trash.
The objectives is to observe and conduct sur -
Business name: Environmentally friendly Campus
Client contact: AUS Sustainability office
Contact number: 06 515 5555
Due date for completion: Start Date: 25-september-2018 End Date: 25-november-2018
Review date/s: The first review date on September 23rd which was the beginning step of making sure to proceed to the next review date. Following are the stages of building up detailed work to check if everything is in the right space. The last is prior the final submission date which is on November 18th to test on the final traces.
Product/service/brand name: Future vision for recycling/ making a convenient and beautiful environment on campus as for disposing trash.
Key objectives: Develop a design-led solution that gives students a better insight of the negative consequences of littering. Showcase UAE examples the good and bad of environment.
Marketing objectives and target audience: Providing a better and cleaner environment for students between the age of 18 - 24 and street cleaners who are mainly involved in the intended audiences at AUS.
Regulatory issues: Ministry of environment impose regulations and laws.
Scope: It should improve the aesthetic look of the environment. Be environmentally friendly. Creating services
1. Awareness campaigns: Educate AUS students to be responsible for disposing trash. Raising awareness of enabling a beautiful campus.
2. Website Promotion: Encourage recycling for AUS students through promoting free T-shirts.
Not in scope: University City
Mrs. Rose works in the sustainability department as she follows up with discussing the environmental issues that undetakes over the AUS campus. Some of the environemntal issues that we have as mentioned by her that there is the problem of food waste and trash.
One of the issues she has brought concerning trash is recycling. She thinks it is not sufficient and there is a potential of increasing education on how things can be recyclyed as such waste management. Also, she added by saying that some items do not get to be recycled correctly which could be an area to be addressed.
One of the questions that was asked is whether environmental issues such as trash directly affects her. In general, she elaborated by bringing a theory called "Broken windows".
The broken windows or glass theory struck me as I was keen to find out more about it. Mrs. Rose explained that the theory holds this notion which is if your environment is not taken care of, you don’t take care of it at the same level. Moreover, the concept of “broken windows” indicates that when someone finds trash somewhere and see garbage just on the ground and around, the inevitable result would be that people are more inclined to not care for this area. When one invests in planting and picking things up it makes the surrounding naturally beautiful. In case of cleaning trash, the idea suggests that it makes one feel more invested in their environment.
Another question that was posed is why do some people not care about trash and environmental issues? What about when someone says its someone else’s responsibility?
A lot of what she pointed out is the problem of not caring for the environment which mainly lies in human behaviors and their attitudes. In addition, that traces back to the cultural education of that person. She further said it depends on how they were raised. For instance, if you come from a privileged place, then someone would probably not having to think about others that clean up after them. Eventually, people tend to not care. The biggest challenges we have on AUS Campus is that there are some who have not been taught from a young age to pick trash or pick up after themselves. However, she thinks that does not mean they have not lived in an environment where there is trash or experienced a really bad trash problem.
How do you think trash ruins the beauty of the environment?
When I did my primary research including conducting interviews and creating surveys, I had an idea in my mind that is I wanted to further explore my topic which is the actual trash observed on AUS Campus. A lot of what I gathered are responses from the sustainability office and the survey’s that in fact endorsed me to come up with ideas to do informative educational solutions.
After interviewing the sustainability office such as Mrs. Rose herself, I have received better insights which she has given on why is it important for one to look after their environment. A lot of her hypothesis were based on the significance of recycling.
One of the things that was instilled in me is knowing why trash at first ruins the beauty of nature. The different answers that I received were interesting not because where is trash there is a problem but because the idea of connecting trash with beauty is very compelling.
I think after concluding with her about the problem faced on AUS Campus that when it comes to someone seeing trash around, it’s hard for them to see around it. When someone adds nourishment to the environment such as cleaning it, it would then give an order to things and people internalize the value of the environment. Moreover, one of the solutions that I came up with deals with human behavior change towards the problem of littering. There is the notion that says “litter attracts litter” which is the result of irresponsible human behavior after the discussions I had with her.
Cultural education is one of the reasons that explains the issue of individual behavior. Some people have demonstrated to them that it’s acceptable to leave trash and not be concerned about it. Yet there are people who grew in an environment where they were taught by their parents or education system that it’s not okay to drop something on the floor.
Similarly, the responses I received from conducting the survey’s do resonate with most of what I obtained from the sustainability office.
The different answers received to “ Is a clean environment a beautiful environment?” fascinated me. I had a lot of people that said “unclean environment results in a bad condition of society”. When I read this, the first thing that came to my mind is that the condition would be bad in terms of a human behavior such as irresponsibility.
Maintaining a clean environment isn’t just making the environment visually pleasing. It’s about creating a healthier and more productive atmosphere that would impact us in a positive way. Likewise, it’s comfortable for the eye and puts people in a good mood according to what most said.
Moreover, many expressed their opinions on whether trash helps to create jobs for street cleaners. A lot of them said that it does not help them to a certain extent because it’s a low-paid job and isn’t the healthiest job.
Because of it, it should be the highest paying job because of how detrimental its effects are, as well as how low people think of street cleaners. Additionally, Street cleaners are meant to remove dust from unclean areas because of their job, wash out the dirt but not clean after us. Some said there shouldn’t be someone assigned to clean our trash and that we should not create it in the first place. Street Cleaners deserve to have better job opportunities not to mention that the job market is huge and they must have the space to get great jobs knowing that they will be getting a good salary for the efforts that they exert.
Also, part of what I developed for my solution is based on people’s needs for how can they maintain the beauty of the environment. Most people said plant trees and flowers, grow things that are culturally/socially considered of value like flowers or symbolic palm trees and encourage recycling. In addition, educate people to be aware of how important it is to make the place a naturally beautiful one. Stop littering for once and keep it clean and healthy.
“A fine glass vase goes from treasure to trash, the moment it is broken. Fortunately, something else happens to you and me. Pick up your pieces. Then, help me gather mine.”
Vera Nazarian,Following the primary and secondary research which I have gathered about trash, I came up with a solution that enables others, specifically AUS students, to realize that thinking that picking up trash is other people’s responsibility is a problem. I further decided to create an awareness campaign composed of posters with an overall message to think twice before you throw trash.
Another reason to be discovered through my solution is how I connected the idea of trash with beauty. Some people do in fact make remarks on how they find it funny that some want to raise awareness about trash to make the environment a beautiful place. Also part of my solution is a website that promotes free T-shirts with the aim of recycling. I thought of T-shirts as a way to inform others that recycling can turn trash in to treasure. Since plastic bottles can turn into t-shirts when recycled.
I wanted people to realize that one can revive the trash and remake it to something useful. When you get to notice these little things, like how plastic bottles, which are the dominant litter on AUS Campus, you will take the opportunity to recycle.
This project has become an important integral part that one should think clearly about maintaining one’s behavior regarding knowing that some try to do things for the sake of creating a sustainable environment. As opposed to those who make the environment feel and look dirty as such saying its someone else’s responsibility and throw trash at their convenience makes us think the people are insensitive. I also want to mention that I am led to believe that our environment has more of an impact mainly due to human’s behavior.
Disrespectful behavior and the carelessness are the negative consequences of too many broken windows that remain broken day after day.
In conclusion, the area of focus I wanted to investigate through the problem of trash on AUS campus. I personally felt that some people take things for granted like throwing trash at their own convenience. However, some don’t even think why trash is a problem and how others clean their mess.
I wanted to explore people’s behavior further in order for AUS students to realize there are values associated with the environment such as respect and responsibility.
The solution of my topic is what I want to achieve such as running an awareness campaign composed of a set of posters with an overall message to take care of the environment. Also, I thought of creating a website promoting t-shirts. This is an incentive for people who wish to recycle on the AUS campus.
All in all, I expanded this topic to connecting trash with beauty. One must know that beauty lies within someone’s self-wholeheartedness. Cleaning trash isn’t just about making the environment attractive but it is about protecting our earth. To be humane is to appreciate the beauty of nature. The undermined values are respect and responsibility which I hope to accomplish a solution for by being environmentally responsible for cleaning up.