WE ARE WHAT WE DON’T EAT

a series of interventions in RISD’s dining halls to significantly increase composting and improve awareness about food waste.

THE PROBLEM:

2
Composting facilities already existed at RISD

1 & 2
but scattered signage and a weak visual prsence

3
meant those facilities went underutilized

Using enviromental observation, I found that of students with compostable food waste:

a pie chart showing that only 38 percent students compost, while 62 percent of students do not.

and user surveys revealed confusion and a lack of awareness about compost and food waste:

“I didn’t know we had compost”

“my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach”

“I just want to avoid spending time in there [the food waste area]”

so after some brainstorming...

I worked closely with RISD Dining Services management to implement...

SOLUTION v1

a). awareness campaign

b). food waste area redesign

But my work
didn’t end there...

upon reviewing the efficacy of Solution v1 after a semester of implementation, I found three opportunities for improvement:

intractable
sorting

sorting between compostables (fruit, veggies, napkins) and non-compostables (dairy, meat, oil) was still overwhelming for students.

repitition
fatigue

students are exposed to a lot of posters - making a standard awareness campaign only marginally valuable.

maintenance
“creep”

a lack of communication with janitorial staff meant that the intended structure of the food waste area was not mantained.

With these constraints in mind, I implemented...

SOLUTION v2

a diagram, showing the before and after, where the after has a more obvious use of color and space.

a diagram, showing the before and after, where the after has a more obvious use of color and space.

a). food waste area redux

b). interactive awareness campaign

QR Code scavenger hunt with interactive, actionable information

PROTEIN | NO GUILT

recyclable, modular construction

intuitive, substantive statistics and infographics

hierarchy allows for quick browsing or detailed reading

interactive elements reveals Instagram accounts with recipes for each alternative

structure prototypes