The Final Straw : Analyzing waste through the context of the single use plastic ban at York University

Waste and waste management have become increasingly important issues in the drive towards sustainability and combatting climate change. In this research portfolio, I critically analyze waste and waste management within the context of Canada’s impending national ban on single use plastics. My portfolio contains three separate components: primary research, a theoretical analysis, and reflections on research. My primary research is based on the dialogical aspects of environmental education. I first examine waste and its management at York University using campus waste audit data. Then I use this data to create a survey on York students’ beliefs and behaviours towards single use plastic and composting on campus. I applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour to craft survey questions. The Theory of Planned Behaviour provides a framework for understanding how students’ attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived behavioural control affect their behaviour. I distributed the web-based survey through This Week @ York, a weekly newsletter that is sent to all students at York University via e-mail. To analyze the survey results, I use a combination of quantitative statistical analyses and qualitative analysis by coding responses thematically. Last, I present environmental education material consisting of infographics and images for social media to equip students to better manage waste on campus. The survey reveals that students have a desire for waste infrastructures but lack an awareness of the existing infrastructures on campus that they desire. These results suggest that environmental education material can be utilized to bridge the gap and communicate to students that York already has some of the infrastructures in place that they seek. My theoretical analysis on waste and waste management considers the concept of waste in the context of neoliberal governmentality and concludes that the responsibility of waste management is increasingly placed on the individual, including the single use plastic ban. This individualization of waste management can be combatted with collective action and stronger regulations that place the responsibility on producers rather than consumers.