Eunice Tay (FASS), Nguyen Thanh Son (CEG), Ramdin Robin (FoE), Somesh Dev S/O Mohan (FoS), Tan Ke Yu (FoE)
Academic Advisor: Ms. Wong Kah Wei
Industry Advisor: Mr. Hor Chor Kiat (UCI, NUS)
Universities provide students resources ranging from transportation to the use of paper. Paper is used in all aspects of academic learning, ranging from books to lectures notes and assignments. According to a study conducted at the Minnesota State University, approximately 2.4 billion pages of paper were used in an academic year. A third of the papers were discarded instantly, while the remaining were neglected. Apart from filling up landfills, paper also contributes to the release of Greenhouse Gases such as methane. Methane traps heat 21 times more effectively than carbon dioxide. In Singapore, 1.2 million of paper waste is generated of which only, 51% of it is recycled. With this worrying trend of paper waste, we decided to focus our project on recycled paper generated by RVRC students. The scope of narrowing our project to this local level is to manage the constraints of limited manpower and to collect data efficiently. Our project aims to incentivize the recycling of paper by showing how much money could be generated from recycled paper which is sold. The money collected from the sale could be used to sustain this endeavour. To test out our idea, we decided to use RVRC as a platform for research and data collection.We intend to create our own recycling points to improve the locations and frequency of bins. We will collect the recycled papers disposed by RVRC students to estimate how much paper could be collected regularly. We will quantify how much paper is disposed in bins through a weighing system. We propose to be the middleman between recycling companies and RVRC students. Additionally, surveys will be conducted prior and after the test run to gauge and obtain feedback on this initiative. With data analysis, we hope to draw insights to develop a conceptual plan to show how paper sold to recycling paper companies is an option to incentivize people to recycle paper.
Keywords: Culture and Lifestyle Trends, Responsible Consumption, Waste Management, Waste paper