While RecycleMania is raging on campus, a researcher in the School of Medicine has created his own addition to the competition.
Last year, Ed Bell, a researcher in the Medical School, devised a new recycling system to increase recycling in his lab by making it easier. Within a month he had the kinks worked out and the whole division was following the plan.
"A moral change had to be made," Bell said. "My inner motivating factor drove me to reach out to people and ask them to recycle better."
The recycling system the lab was following previously recycled less than 5 percent of the waste produced. Within a month of enforcing the new system, the whole division was recycling more than 85 percent of that waste.
"People want to recycle, but we needed a system that worked around people's behavior," Bell explained.
After observing the people he worked with, he set up two boxes every two aisles in the lab, one for paper and one for co-mingled materials, so nobody had to walk two floors just to recycle.
"Most people were recycling paper, but plastics were another story," he said.
Bell said most labs generate a lot of non-recyclable plastic waste - including GIBCO, antiseptic, reagent bottles and pipette tip boxes - that was being thrown in the trash.
The old system was not effective, he said, adding, "I believed that people wanted to recycle but just needed someone to mark out a clear plan and run point."
He devised his system after talking with environment services and incorporated their rules in the new system.
Every evening he spends half an hour sorting through the boxes to make sure no plastic items have been thrown into the paper box.
Working with housekeeping, his system has reduced the amount of trash produced - so much that the cans Penn provides for trash may take up to eight days to fill.
"People have been very cooperative, very responsive," Bell said. "I could not have done this without [the people in my division]."
Although not everyone follows the system, he said some people need to be approached with a "light-hearted, humble, service-like attitude." He said he finds ways - like giving them flowers - to show his appreciation for their effort and to encourage them to use the system better.
Bell said to apply his system to another lab, he first has to observe how people work in that lab, meet those people and devise a plan that fits their habits. At night, he monitors the progress of the system.
Bell said often just changing the location or increasing the size of the recycling cans encouraged people to recycle more.His goal is to devise similar recycling systems for the whole building by June.
Ryan King, a graduate student in Bell's lab, said Bell's system has helped make the lab more aware of the problem.
"It is not too difficult to put your trash in two well-located and well-marked boxes," he said.
Shana Barrett, a technician in the lab, said recycling requires more effort, but added that the new system has made it easy.
"The boxes fill up quickly, so I think people are using the system," she said.
