So I just read Marco's post about the Sustainability referendum on campus. I was reminded of a thought I had, maybe yesterday in class, but at any rate very recently in regards to the improvement of student and faculty participation in recycling and other sustainability causes on campus. My thought was this:
Convincing people that recycling is important through preaching is a real pain in the ass, and in the grand scheme I think it's pretty ineffective. Merely telling people that "recycling is important" does not provide enough incentive for people to change their existing behavior. Throwing away recyclables, littering - these are all behaviors that can be modified, but behavior modification tends to only result after some kind of reinforcement, be it negative or positive. Therefore, I thought of a program (yes, a program, contradictory to everything Quinn talks about) that could potentially change people's minds, and thereby their behavior. I thought of a club, or a branch of the Sustainability club, that would be tasked with something incredibly boring but also incredibly important. The members would stand alongside trashcans, which would also strategically be placed near the recycling containers (I think it's pretty damn stupid that they are not put side by side all the time - this seems like an easy way to facilitate the choice of where a disposable ought to do), and the members would essentially act as garbage police. When someone walks by, chucks a Coke bottle in the trash, the garbage police would pluck the bottle out and dispose of it in the appropriate recycling container. Hell, they could even heckle the waster a little if they so desired. If these garbage police were posted up for long enough and became a symbol of "Dispose of this shit correctly!" then the effect might actually be, well, effective. People might potentially begin to associate proper disposal with NOT getting heckled or hairy-eyeballed for chucking their plastics in the wrong bin.
As I am writing this I'm thinking about how 1984 this sounds, so creepy. Having people watch and correct your every wrong move - yeah, sounds a little uncomfortable. But discomfort elicits different behavior, which is what we want.
So, umm, yeah. That was my idea. Cheers.
I would love this program to go into effect! Indeed, I have thought of the same thing, but contrary to Quinn's opinion of new minds saving the world instead of new programs, I say to hell with it as well. Go for it: join the coalition of students through student government, write a bill and get support, or start a club—at least you know that implementing a new program is not the only step to solving such a ridiculous and mundane problem on campus. Thanks for reading my post!
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