| dc.description.abstract | The inability of students to properly sort their waste on Dalhousie’s campus and in the
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) resulting from improper waste management education
creates barriers to achieving Dalhousie’s sustainability goals. In Canada, there is a very high
level of daily consumer waste created and a measured inefficiency of waste sorting practices
established at many global post-secondary institutions. Furthermore, this project conducted
research to determine the most influential factors in the missorting of municipal solid waste and
understand the tools most likely to improve Dalhousie’s undergraduate students' ability to
manage their waste effectively. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative data collection,
demographic-based questions were used to compare students' ability to accurately sort waste
within a survey, followed by the relationship between these results and familiarity with current
HRM waste sorting tools. It was found that the most significant factors in a student's ability to
properly sort waste were how long they have resided in the HRM and their familiarity with
current waste sorting information. Furthermore, student-provided feedback outlines future
studies that could be conducted to determine the most impactful ways of disseminating waste
management guidelines to educate Dalhousie’s undergraduate student population effectively.
Overall, a future analysis involving a greater data set will aid in implementing waste
management tools on Dalhousie campuses that will effectively target the student demographics
requiring further waste sorting education. | en_US |
