Are Your Waste Sorting Signs Easy to Read?
Mt. Airy Nexus, a co-working space, has just revamped their composting, recycling, and landfill signage with the help of Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants. Their new signage is part of Mt. Airy Nexus’ continuing effort to be an environmentally conscious coworking space.
Signs: Before & After
The original Mt. Airy Nexus waste disposal sign (left) was difficult to read and contained some irrelevant information. The new sign (right) has pictures to make sorting easier and only has items that are regularly disposed of at the coworking space.
With all the different information out there on waste disposal, it can be confusing whether some items are recyclable, compostable, or should be put in landfill. To ensure promote proper sorting of disposables and food waste, it is best to Include images of which items go where and personalize the items on signs to be relevant to those using the space.
The old signage in the kitchen of Mt. Airy Nexus was difficult to read from a distance and contained some information that was not relevant in a coworking space, for example, that grass clippings could be composted.
The new signs at Mt. Airy Nexus feature labeled pictures of items that are regularly disposed of in the coworking space. On this new sign, a picture of a disposable take out container from the nearby Weavers Way Coop is included because many coworkers get their lunch from there. The containers themselves claim to be compostable but after referring to Mt. Airy Nexus’s composting service, Bennett Compost, they discovered that not all composters can take such containers. Because of this, the take out containers have to go into landfill. By making this distinction, the waste disposal signs at Mt. Airy Nexus are unique to the coworking space and will make waste disposal more efficient.
Images Help To Sort Properly
It has been known for some time that waste disposal signs with images of items more efficiently help people sort waste. In one study, researchers compared waste disposal signs with only words to signs that included images and found that signs with images increased the accuracy with which test subjects sorted waste (Wu et al., 2018). The simple design choice of adding images to a sign can be effective in properly sorting waste and thus, keeps more items out of landfill by reducing contamination of the different types of waste.
China’s National Sword Policy Cuts to the Core of Our Waste Disposal
Prior to 2018, China was the destination for almost 700,000 tons of US recycling waste per year (Joyce, 2019). However, high levels of contamination in US recyclables made processing them difficult and unprofitable in China, resulting in much of it being put in landfills or incinerated. The Chinese government put an end to this contamination problem in 2018 by enacting its National Sword policy, which banned the imports of foreign waste (Javorsky, 2019). Now with nowhere to send our waste, Americans are facing the reality that our waste disposal behavior needs to change.
Throughout the country, there are many campaigns to standardize waste disposal signage in order to make it easier to compost and recycle wherever you go, and thus reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfill and contamination of other waste streams. One such campaign is Recycle Across America. Their goal is to eliminate the confusion around recycling that often leads to contamination by pushing for the standardization of recycling signs across the country. Recycle Across America has helped to put standardized signs in many different institutions and have seen real results. For instance, by mandating standardized signs, the University of Denver saw a 90% drop in contamination of their recycling (Recycle Across America).
While standardizing signs to reduce contamination of different waste streams is an effective response to the waste crisis, it does not get to the heart of the problem. Other campaigns are targeting the “throw-away” culture in the US in order to stop waste at its source. UPSTREAM is an organization that helps businesses design waste out of their operations, pushes for legislative change, and helps to inspire cultural changes surrounding our waste disposal behavior. By starting at the source of our waste problem, organizations and institutions can work to cut down on waste at its source and reduce our dependence on landfill and recycling.
Our Waste Disposal Behaviors
The steps that are being taken at Mt. Airy Nexus to improve their waste sorting efficiency are just the beginning in a global overhaul of our waste disposal behaviors. Efforts to improve the use of signage and cut down on the amount of waste being generated in the first place are important steps to help clean up our planet.
Article (and Mt Airy Nexus’ signs) by Allison Day, intern, Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants, February 2020.
