Wheelie bins
May. 19th, 2010 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyrasantae
I've seen blue and green bins around campus for a while, but let us now consider this fine example of the full line of recycling bins that the university has just installed in the main Education foyer.
(Over the last few days I've spotted custodians all over the building diligently peeling off old stickers from wheelie bins and applying new ones.)
From left to right we have: Waste (black), Glass and Light Metals (yellow), Plastics (brown), Pop Cans and Bottles (green; 'Beverage Containers' as on the sign above it would be more accurate -- they haven't replaced those bins or stickers yet), and Mixed Paper and Cardboard (blue).
Trouble is, I don't think they're labelled very well.
I can understand having the black container off to the side from the recycling containers, but why does the label also have the Recycle symbol on it? That's just confusing. Moreover, all of the distinguishing labelling is in text only, including the lists of appropriate materials above each of the bins (which are taken from the recycling bins link above).
Johanna will have to remind me whether the garbage/compost/recycling disposal bins at Kortepohja student village had visual reminders in the form of an icon next to their labels (because I recall the labels having more than just the words on them but I'm not 100% sure), but given the relative ethnic homogeneity of Finland (compared to Canada), one can reasonably assume that everybody can read the Finnish labels. (All of the international students also get a nice little recycling guide-booklet that details EVERYTHING. I admire the effort! For us summer students, translations of said labels were also found in the residence information package (which is just a few pages long, so there's little reason not to read this, even if you don't read the booklet).)
I don't think we can make an assumption that everyone can read English here. Even if you do for students and staff (we are taught in English, after all), diverse members of the public also make use for the building for special events, including English language learners for classes. Also, the administration is currently under a mandate to try to bring in as much international talent as possible. Can we expect a non-native English speaker to know what a 'tetra pack' or a 'clamshell container' is?
Language argument aside, the reality is that we are glued to images -- we are visually-engaged. A pretty colour will not hold everybody's attention long enough to nor cause them to bother to read a page of text. The bins as they are require you to stop and read. Even though understanding all of the fine print isn't entirely necessary for one to use the bins, the presence of so much text can be daunting and makes the bins kind of scary.
I would recommend adding some informative illustrations or icons to each of the bins and/or the signs above. It doesn't have to be as complete as the posters that the city gives out for their household recycling program, but if we really want as many people as possible to participate in a recycling program on campus, we need to make it accessible to as many people as possible, and using visual language is a good start.
Addendum: Unlike many European societies, the movement toward sorting our garbage is relatively recent, so the habit is not at all yet part of the lifestyle for everybody. Before Calgary got household pickup of recycling last year, the drive-up depots were sorted by different types of materials, so I'm used to sorting stuff. But with household pickup (both here and in Calgary), it doesn't need to be sorted; they do so for you at the sorting plant.
So I wouldn't immediately accuse students of laziness (the rhetoric of laziness attributes a quality to the person instead of addressing other issues that may be responsible), but it's still a lot of bins to sort stuff into if you're not used to having to sort stuff, and the labelling doesn't entice people into learning the habit if they're having trouble or not interested in reading it.
(Over the last few days I've spotted custodians all over the building diligently peeling off old stickers from wheelie bins and applying new ones.)
From left to right we have: Waste (black), Glass and Light Metals (yellow), Plastics (brown), Pop Cans and Bottles (green; 'Beverage Containers' as on the sign above it would be more accurate -- they haven't replaced those bins or stickers yet), and Mixed Paper and Cardboard (blue).
Trouble is, I don't think they're labelled very well.
I can understand having the black container off to the side from the recycling containers, but why does the label also have the Recycle symbol on it? That's just confusing. Moreover, all of the distinguishing labelling is in text only, including the lists of appropriate materials above each of the bins (which are taken from the recycling bins link above).
Johanna will have to remind me whether the garbage/compost/recycling disposal bins at Kortepohja student village had visual reminders in the form of an icon next to their labels (because I recall the labels having more than just the words on them but I'm not 100% sure), but given the relative ethnic homogeneity of Finland (compared to Canada), one can reasonably assume that everybody can read the Finnish labels. (All of the international students also get a nice little recycling guide-booklet that details EVERYTHING. I admire the effort! For us summer students, translations of said labels were also found in the residence information package (which is just a few pages long, so there's little reason not to read this, even if you don't read the booklet).)
I don't think we can make an assumption that everyone can read English here. Even if you do for students and staff (we are taught in English, after all), diverse members of the public also make use for the building for special events, including English language learners for classes. Also, the administration is currently under a mandate to try to bring in as much international talent as possible. Can we expect a non-native English speaker to know what a 'tetra pack' or a 'clamshell container' is?
Language argument aside, the reality is that we are glued to images -- we are visually-engaged. A pretty colour will not hold everybody's attention long enough to nor cause them to bother to read a page of text. The bins as they are require you to stop and read. Even though understanding all of the fine print isn't entirely necessary for one to use the bins, the presence of so much text can be daunting and makes the bins kind of scary.
I would recommend adding some informative illustrations or icons to each of the bins and/or the signs above. It doesn't have to be as complete as the posters that the city gives out for their household recycling program, but if we really want as many people as possible to participate in a recycling program on campus, we need to make it accessible to as many people as possible, and using visual language is a good start.
Addendum: Unlike many European societies, the movement toward sorting our garbage is relatively recent, so the habit is not at all yet part of the lifestyle for everybody. Before Calgary got household pickup of recycling last year, the drive-up depots were sorted by different types of materials, so I'm used to sorting stuff. But with household pickup (both here and in Calgary), it doesn't need to be sorted; they do so for you at the sorting plant.
So I wouldn't immediately accuse students of laziness (the rhetoric of laziness attributes a quality to the person instead of addressing other issues that may be responsible), but it's still a lot of bins to sort stuff into if you're not used to having to sort stuff, and the labelling doesn't entice people into learning the habit if they're having trouble or not interested in reading it.
