Written Proposal

Overview

In order to reduce the amount of people using the trash bash as a free drop off site for garbage, the trash bash committee will hand out stickers to the volunteers that will be placed on the garbage bags when they are returned.

Introduction

The Trash Bash is a yearly event on Earth day held by Quinte Conservation. It consists of hundreds of volunteers picking up garbage off roadsides in the Quinte Region. Our connection to the trash bash is we had to come up with an effective way to put an end to people using the garbage drop off sites as a free garbage dump. Our solution to this problem is to create stickers that have the Trash Bash logo on them. The plan of this report is to cover what Quinte Conservations purpose is, why people would want to use the Trash Bash as a free garbage site, how the stickers will work, the process we took to complete our project, the execution of our project, and some of the limitations we faced which were timing, and money.

Body

Quinte Conservation is one of the 36 conservation authorities in Ontario. There area covers 6,200 square kilometers. Quinte Conservation is an environmental protection agency. So technically they protect and conserve our environment and economy. Not only do they run the Trash Bash they also organize tree seedlings, community wildlife monitoring program, Moira River clean up, and workshops for people to learn about the environment.
Some people will choose to use the Trash Bash as a free garbage drop off site because Belleville, Quinte West, and Prince Edward County all now operate their waste management on a user pay garbage system. A user pay garbage system means that it is mandatory to buy bag tags for garbage. Quinte West citizens are paying $2 per bag, and Belleville citizens are paying $1 per bag. Garbage is only picked up once a week in Belleville, Quinte West, and Prince Edward County, and in some families the garbage can add up quickly in a week making this an expensive hassle. Bag tags can also become an inconvenience because it is not always easy to find a business the sells them. These reasons are why people like to find places where they can dispose of their garbage free of charge, it is less hassle, and more convenient.
The stickers are a great way to solve the garbage problem because they are for inexpensive, and easy to make. Unfortunately a lot of print shops in Belleville such as “Staples” do not make stickers, so we thought mailing labels would do the trick. You can purchase 200 mailing labels at “The Office Depot” for $6.99, and make the stickers on your on computer. All you have to do is put the Trash Bash logo on Microsoft Word and print it off onto the mailing labels, anyone who is fluent with Microsoft Word would be able to do this. Every volunteer will then be given one sticker by the Trash Bash committee the morning of the Garbage clean up, and must present it on their garbage bag(s) at the end of the day in order for it to be disposed of at the garbage site.
The process we took in order to complete our project was first we had figure out what our problem was, then we had to brainstorm ideas how to solve this problem. Once we had our idea of the stickers, we had to find a way to get them made. We went to several different print shops in Belleville hoping that someone would be able to make them for us but we were out of luck. Our solution to this problem was buying the mailing labels from Office depot and making them ourselves.
The stickers will be given to the Trash Bash Committee Thursday, April 20, 2006. The Trash Bash begins at 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, April 22, 2006. All volunteers are going to meet with the committee at Quinte Conservations location in Trenton. The committee will then hand out 1 sticker to each volunteer. The volunteers will spend all day picking up garbage off roadsides in the Quinte Area, and then they will see us at the drop off site. We will be helping at the drop off site in Frankford. All volunteers must have and show us a sticker on their garbage bag in order for us to take it, and for them to win the Trash Bash trophy.
Timing was a big limitation during the process of our project, because of the fact that people can still volunteer for the Trash Bash. In order to solve this problem we had to estimate how many people we think were going to volunteer. We asked people from the Trash Bash Committee how many people volunteered last year, and added on 30 which gave us a rough number of 256. Also we do not know how many bags each person is going to collect, and we can not really give each person 10 stickers because that would make our solution a little expensive. In order to eliminate this problem we are just going to give each person one sticker which they will put on one of their bags when they are dropping them off. Also money plays a factor with our project, if there was more money available, we would be able to make enough stickers for every bag, or get fancy and get bag tags made for the Trash Bash. Although the bag tags would look very professional, they would take a lot more research, time, and money.




Conclusion
Throughout this report we have showed you that people are going to use the Trash Bash as a free drop off site because of the costs and inconvenience of bag tags. We also believe that our idea of simply placing a sticker on all Trash Bash garbage, will easily eliminate all potential dumping on the conservation site, and will make Quinte a cleaner area. We have also showed you the process of completing our project, what will happen the day of the Trash Bash, and the limitations we faced which were timing, and money. Although we will not be putting our project into execution until after this assignment is due, we feel that it will go over very well, and we are certain that all stakeholders will enjoy its success. We will call and set up a meeting with you hopefully for either Monday or Tuesday so we can discuss the aftermath of our project and show you some pictures from the Trash Bash.