Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Applied Engineering and Technology Management

First Advisor

Schafer, Marion D.

Abstract

This research investigated the awareness of recycling programs at student family housing units at Indiana State University. The purpose of this research was to find out the awareness of recycling in these areas. It allowed the researcher to examine the recycling awareness among other variables such as willingness to take part in pickup and willingness to take part in drop-off, among students at these areas. The researcher employed IRB (Institutional Review Board) approved survey to survey students who resided in four units, and who were willing to participate in the study. An introduction of the researcher, his background and objectives of the study, along with contact information of the researcher, the committee chair, and the IRB was given to each participant The researcher used systematic sampling to sample the population to get the 240 sample size. Based on a coin toss, every odd apartment number from the apartment numbers of the family housing units was selected for the one-month survey. The data was coded into value labels and recorded in SPSS for a statistical analysis. Bar charts, chi-square, and cross-tabulations were used for the analysis of the data at 0.05 significance levels. Descriptively, 59 % family housing residents were not aware of recycling program. However, 88 % of them believed that recycling would help them dispose of their trash. 78 % of them were willing to take part in pickup, while 70 % would also do so in drop-off. About 45 % were confident that the recycling center would recycle the materials they sorted for recycling,while 22 % recorded inconvenience as the reason for not taking part in both pickup and drop-off programs. About 34 % wanted ISU authorities to promote pickup recycling in order to make recycling appealing or convenient to them. All the null hypotheses were retained except there were statistically significant differences between the awareness of recycling center, awareness of recycling program, willingness to take part in pickup, willingness to take part in drop-off counts and the two categories of nationality of students, and the awareness of recycling center and gender counts.

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