Composting and Me: A Scholarly Presentation of the Practicum

Brandt Anzalone, Patrick Bevan, Jacob Boyer banzalon@umd.edu, jcboyer327@gmail.com, patgbevan@gmail.com

Science, Discovery and the Universe Computer Science,

Introduction

Conclusions

Methods

Findings

Thanks to Mira Azarm and Nicole Mogul for leading us through this practicum

Sustainability and Design is a Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS) course offered through College Park Scholars here at the University of Maryland. Through the program, we learned and applied a method known as “Design Thinking” to recommend approaches for Prince George’s County to improve its composting pilot. In addition, we focused on examining the relationships between humans and technology to gain a different insight into and develop a comprehensive understanding of sustainability.

In order to complete the objectives of the course, we first had to establish a knowledge base in two distinct areas: sustainable food waste practices and the difficulties of implementing sustainable practices in the community at large. We accomplished the former through participating in food waste audits of the dining facilities on campus and site visits to Terp Farm and the Prince George’s Country Organics Composting Facility. The latter was achieved by conducting countless interviews with not only individuals on campus, but also various demographics in neighboring communities. Then, we aggregated our findings as a class and applied “Design Thinking” in order to come up with implementable solutions as recommendations to the county.

Our participation in this course exposed us to the difference between theoretical and practical engineering solutions for serving a community. For a design to be effective, it has to work in the hands of the community rather than in a model developed by the hands of experts. The only way to construct these type of solutions is by processing information from the bottom-up, looking first to the consumer. By examining the wants and needs of the community before conceptualizing a design, you allow the design process to be more reflective of the actual conditions it is being utilized under.

While an educational perspective makes the value of sustainability readily apparent, the real design challenge comes from getting others to find value in a practice that essentially yields no direct return on their investment. This means composting solutions either need to require minimal thought and effort from users or effectively demonstrate the benefits of composting. When conducting interviews with composting pilot participants, there was a lack of knowledge in what the objective of composting is and how people view their role in the grand scheme of sustainable practices.

Gore Cover technology implemented by Prince George’s County Organics Composting Facility ->

“Design Thinking For The Rest Of Us.” Decision Analyst, Insights, www.decisionanalyst.com/blog/designthinking/.

McGee, Amelia. “Composting 101.” Toxipedia, Toxipedia, 18 Mar. 2015, www.toxipedia.org/display/FOC/Composting+101.

“PG County Composting Facility.” Sustainable Generation, Sustainable Generation, sustainable-generation.com/project-profile/prince-georges-county-western-branch-composting-facility-project-profile/.