Grad Student Kitchen Ecosystem: 1rst Implementation

In our first implementation of a solution to the place. We focused on 2 major problem areas: The sink and the waste bins.

The Sink

The sink and the surrounding area (dishwasher, drying racks, cabinets) is in serious need of an intervention. People leave a large stack of plates, cups, and utensils in the sink. People generally use the dishwasher to clean all of this. We decided to implement an experiment and see what people will do when there is no dishwasher.

Observations:

• People think the dishwasher is actually broken but someone suggested storing their dirty dishes in there to make space in the sink
• One girl finally got fed up with the amount of gross stuff in the sink that she decided to do them all (she had the time)
• One girl refused to do all the dishes bc its not her job/it’s her way of hoping the other people will do theirs
• “Where did all the forks go? They’re gone. 20 of them have gone missing. Who are the fork thieves?
• Spoons are there.

Waste Bins

We also moved the Trash, Recycling, and Composting bins to see if the new orientation helps people properly dispose of their juk.

Observations:

• I think people were walking to throw their trash out in the now farther away trash can.