Week 3 Trash Map

Trash Map Group Assignment

The group assignment for the week was the Trash Map. This assignment consisted of creating a visualization of the trash route on campus. Together with my teammates from the trash installation piece, we created a visual representation of the path of trash in NYU Shanghai and the ways in which the campus ayis dispose of and sort the trash.

This is the illustration of our trash map. We followed the ayis to the B2 area of the cafeteria, where the trash sorting takes place everyday. The first step in the trash sorting process begins with the students that sort their recyclables and food waste after their meals. This is done in the 3 large trash cans by the dishes conveyor belt area.The trash is then collected by the ayis.

It is interesting to observe that a lot of the ayis end up placing the trash which is previously sorted in the 3 containers(recyclable, residual and household waste) in the same container, which is then taken to B2. Surprisingly, this trash is once again sorted into different types of waste. This is done by hand by the ayis in the B2 area.

This is a video taken by my team member James Chou of the trash sorting in B2.

The following are some facts we collected about trash sorting on campus, after our interview with one of the B2 ayis:

-The NYU Shanghai building actually has two different companies of ayis working. One group works from 10F-15F and the rest works from B1-9F. 

-The Ayis from 10F-15F only collects the trash and throws it down to B2, they do not do any sorting.  

-Then, the Ayis from B2 start their work of sorting at 2pm, and finish around 3:30 sometimes to 4. Then at night they do another sorting from 6pm to around 8pm but sometimes to later time as well.

 

In addition, we discovered several interesting facts about trash sorting on campus from our talks with camPus employees. Since its start in 2014, trash sorting awareness has been gradually implemented at NYUSH. According to the ayis, an average of 15 buckets of trash are produced a day, excluding wet waste, which is estimated to be around 10 buckets. As a conclusion, ayis were adamant that around 70% of the trash produced on campus is not sorted properly.