Dot ShawHello! I’m Dot Shaw, and I am a rising junior attending Lafayette High School in the Pre-Engineering and SCAPA for Visual Art programs. I was selected to participate in the UK Summer Youth Program where I began an internship in the UK Recycling department. I was drawn to the program for real life job experience in a field related to my future career in the sciences; I’m drawn specifically to environment and biosystems engineering. I went through an application and interview process and was one of ten youths accepted to the program.
In my internship with UK Recycling, I gained lots of valuable skills and experiences. I analyzed waste diversion data from UK’s football games and compared the diversion rates to past years, coordinated communications between the recycling and trucking departments to deliver compost bins to the residence halls, delivered bins and reusable products around campus to help staff reduce their waste, and researched grants which aid sustainability in Kentucky. While doing all this, I also had a main project which focused on updating UK Recycling’s Reuse Resource Map.
The Reuse Resource Map is an important tool for reducing waste not only on UK’s campus, but also across Lexington. The map shows users locations around Lexington which fall into at least one of five categories: Donation Centers, Recycling Centers, Repair Stores, Resell Stores, and Thrift Stores. Each category represents one way the marked location helps citizens reduce their waste. They can give their items a new purpose by donating, reselling, or recycling old items, they can repair their old items instead of throwing them away, or they can shop in thrift stores and reduce waste by buying secondhand items.
I updated this tool by first conducting research about the locations originally on the map to see if their services or locations had changed. Then I began adding new locations to the map. At UK Recycling we want to become a zero-waste campus by 2030. To be considered a zero-waste campus, we need to divert at least 90% of waste away from the landfill. To help achieve this, it is important students know where on campus they can donate or repair their items, so I was particularly focused on locations on UK’s campus which are more accessible to students, such as the Big Blue Pantry and Wildcat Wardrobe. I was also in contact with many campus organizations to ask if they would like to be on the resource map as a place to accept donations. Certain clubs need more resources, and if they could receive donations, then it would help the club while also giving students a way to repurpose old items.
I also added a new category to the map: Discounts for Reusable Items. Certain stores offer rewards for customers bringing in reusable items, including reusable cups, bowls, and shopping bags. By rewarding reusability, consumers are encouraged to reduce their waste. Every time a reusable bag is used, it prevents the use of plastic bags which are usually not recycled. Some very well-known stores offer these discounts, but consumers are often unaware. For example, Starbucks offers a discount with every reusable cup a customer brings in. Three large companies, with 31 locations between them across Lexington, were added to the map in this new category.
The Reuse Resource Map is now updated and operational on UK Recycling’s website. With over 70 new locations added, the map is more helpful now than ever, so go check it out!
