Abstract
Climate changes have already altered the natural environment in New Zealand and further practices would jeopardize the efforts to attain a sustainable environment in the region. Statistics showed that New Zealand has the highest greenhouse gas emission per household therefore to effectively curb the challenges caused by excess greenhouse emission should start from the household level. In this account, a study re4search was conducted within the University of Otago to evaluate and assess the level of domestic waste management among students in their respective flatting. This report presents the summary of the study and its findings as the outstanding finding being that most students are aware of composting waste management but reluctant in making it a practice in their flats.
Introduction
The environment is highly valued in New Zealand and in that accord, there have been initiatives and projects initiated both by the government and private entities to ensure that enviro0nmental sustainability is achieved within the country. However, the efforts towards environmental sustainability for future generations stand at a crossroads due to increased daily human activities that directly impact the climate patterns and conditions within the region. The most recent report jointly produced by the Stats New Zealand and ministry of environment Environment Aotearoa 2019 showed the human lifestyle in a great way contributes drastically to our environment. Generally, the most affected areas are oceans and rivers, towns, and cities. The report recommends that for the conservation of our environment for the future generation, and then we have to make the right choices today, on how we handle our wastes both from domestic effluents and industrial discharge.
Going by the current trends and patterns on how human interaction with the ecosystem, the outcome might be gross and dreadful since people handle nature in a careless way that will eventually lead to unsustainability. If these unsustainable trends and patterns continue, then future generations will have to live in harsh environmental conditions. All is not lost since there is still space for improvement that calls for a shift in practices that embraces environmental sustainability. These sustainable practices involve proper care to New Zealand’s natural resources such as forests, rivers, and oceans and vegetation as a whole. Conservation of water sources such as seas and oceans. Therefore it is the role of youths to create a conducive environment that would support their future expeditions. And that account, several studies had emerged at the University of Otago, acknowledging the need to focus on upscaling and strengthening efforts towards sustainability and transition of more sustainable practices. This report entails the various steps and inputs by university students can design and incentivize sustainable waste management among students, especially those that are flatting. The main aim of these changes in practices is to reduce landfill waste.
The reduction of landfill waste is quite viable as the research is composting. Composting has the potential to reduce household curbside wastes waste by up to 25% in New Zealand which results in the reduction of greenhouse gas emission associated with the decomposing of organic waste in landfills. Undergraduate Students flatting are best for this study since in a few years’ time they will graduate and start their own lives. If the art of composting is well instilled in them, then it will be their norm even after campus thus helping in reducing the landfill waste from domestic effluents.
Research Question
Comparing the environment conditions and climate patterns between 100 years ago, there is a substantive difference. 100 years ago, one could predict the weather pattern and this serves as a crucial tool for agricultural planning unlike nowadays were not even advanced meteorological systems would be 75% reliable. The uncertainty on climatic conditions is attributed to increased human activities that involve clearing of vegetation for settling overwhelming population and improper waste disposal that leads to increased greenhouse gas emission. Therefore this research study aims to address and establish whether a sense of location affects undergraduate at the University of Otago flatting students’ use of composting in student flats.
The research study is guided by the objectives to explore and establish the available composting techniques that are already used by flatting students. To explore the effect of location and place of flatting affects the composting. Undergraduate students from the University of Otago flats in different locations and the impact of the place in the composting activities, locality affects the individual’s activities. Other factors that affect student’s actions on wastes management such factors include peers, trends, direct contact with places, and location attachment. These are important in understanding and explaining the underlying causes of student composting actions. The effect of sense of place in the University of Otago student’s actions towards composting is expected to be strong, and for this reason, it is important to understand how it creates this effect.
Another aspect of the study was to explore and derive a concrete conclusion on undergraduate students from the University of Otago view the basic compositing techniques and how the use of composting in students’ flats can be improved and various ways of overcoming the challenges associated with the current composting methods used. In order to effectively asses the current conditions and methods of disposing domestic effluents from flats, questioners and one on one interviews were conducted to obtain fist hand information on the state of waste management in flats where students reside from. the structure of this report was based on the current trends on the national reporting on environmental systems, and the questions that guided the analysis was geared towards putting independent, robust and rigorously scrutinize information obtained from research methodologies before considering any findings in the generalization and decision making on matters waste management.
Research methodology
The research study incorporated various methods of data collection to obtain the required information regarding waste management within the flats were students reside. Since the target group was mainly students from the University of Otago, therefore structured interviews of students and the use of questioner containing relevant questions pertaining to waste management in the respective flats were used to collect and obtain data for this assessment. The interview questions were well structured with simple questions revolving around environmental sustainability and individual practices that would help conserve the environment for the next generation. The interviews were conducted verbally with the response from students interviewed transcripted for comparison and analysis. The questions were structured to take approximately ten minutes with the interviewee thus giving ample time to extract substantive information from the interview.
Another method used for data collection was the use of structured questioners. Students living in flats were provided with questioner templates with structured questions and characterized options where they could pick and selects according to question asked and some sections only demanding yes or no options. The response4 from the survey were then analyzed and computed for further analysis and conclusion of the study.
Research Findings
After field data collections, they were subjected to scrutiny and analysis to have conclusive information from them. Since methods of data collection were primary methods thus the information obtained from students was considerably reliable with lest distortion of data. The research interviews were conducted between the 6th of April and 17th April 2020. A total of ten undergraduate students were interviewed. Out of the total interviewed conducted 90% were successfully completed with 20% having some glitch but the summary of the answers give n by students was considered for the analysis. From the research analysis it was established that out of 11 students considered in the study, only 1 was practicing compositing in their flats while the remaining 10 had no composting systems in their respective flats. Though five students had experience compositing in the past before moving to Dunedin, 1 practiced compositing while at home, 4 students had experienced their parents composting and all the participants had helped their parents composting in one way or another while at tender age hence composting was no a new practice to them. It was established that students did not consider the act of composting a widespread practice in Dunedin since the council did not have established measures to compel residents to consider composting as a measure of managing wastes. It was not common among students since students prefer easy and quick ways of disposing of wastes and some students did not consider composting but the challenge was that they did not have gardens within the flats.
From obtained information, it was established that the majority of students had since of familiarity with Dunedin as 3 were residents of Dunedin and this was attributed to the family and friendship they had amongst them and the items and facilities at the flat made some students feel at home. And the factors that hindered students from composting were the place of residence as some flats had sticker rules on how students operate and most flats lacked gardens that would facilitate composting.
The findings were technically interpreted into graphical representations as follows.
The composting trends among student of different level of studies
Conclusion
Current environmental conservation status in entire New Zealand requires more actions to be considered for environmental sustainability to be realized. These actions need to be calculated in young people most so on-campus students who are expected to start an independent life after campus. A study conducted at the University of Otago showed that more measures need to be initiated to ensure that environment conservation through proper waste management is fully embraced by students and flat dwellers. It is quite evident that most residents of Dunedin and New Zealand are generally reluctant in taking proper waste management since there are no strict rules and guidelines put in place by authorities to monitor waste dispersals from residential places. Composting is the most simple and effective method of managing domestic effluents
Domestic effluents might be disregarded environmental pollutants yet contribute heavily to the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere causing the depletion of the ozone layer. With time, prolonged depletion alters weather patterns thus poses a threat to environmental conditions for future generations. Therefore it’s our collective responsibility to ensure that our daily practices are cognitive of environment sustainability.