project description: develop an intervention with physical touchpoints to mitigate a systemic material waste problem.
project description: develop an intervention with physical touchpoints to mitigate a systemic material waste problem.
Elizabeth Price
engineer | designer |
Austin's citywide compost efforts
an informational & interactive data visualization
collaborative design engineering studio | MDE - Harvard GSD
design goal: develop an interactive application that visualizes and and allows for the comparison of waste trends in Austin, Texas based on sets of existing data on their compost efforts
learning outcomes: 2D data visualization
project description: collect, analyze, and visualize data which dimensions or explains the structure of a major problem or promising opportunity within the physical waste space
tools & processes: excel, tableau, adobe after effects
problem
Austin is one of the few cities in the US to take such a huge initiative with regards to decreasing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, but the problem is that there’s no sure way of knowing how much progress is being made, if any. Austin had compost drop-off sites in place long before they began their zero waste goal, and they have since began a curbside compost program, but what are the results of all this work?
process
Through the organization of various datasets, I aim to create an informational and interactive visualization that will help the user gain insights on the impact that the City of Austin's compost efforts have on the amount waste collected. Additionally, I aim to help the user gain a better understanding of the progress towards Austin’s zero waste goal.
solution
First, I developed a simple data visualization that compares the amount of waste being collected on a daily basis versus its final destination - landfill or composting facility. Second, I created a comparison graph that measures the amount of waste being collected yearly versus the population of Austin to show the potential impact of a growing population. Finally, I offer insights into various anomalies seen in the data to allow for possible reasoning behind certain data points and trends.
context
In 2011, the city of Austin, Texas set a goal to reach zero waste status by the year 2040. This goal consists of diverting at least 90% of all discarded materials from landfills; and as a subset of this goal they’ve One of the ways they've began to tackle their waste problem is by addressing the city's production of organic waste. To help redirect organ waste going to landfills, Austin also made plans to reduce waste from homes and partner with composting groups,
the system
Austin sorts their organic waste into three categories, brush, yard trimmings and food waste, and this waste ends up in one of 4 locations:
Landfills, a consumer drop-off center, or one of two compost facilities. As the first major step towards reaching their goal, in 2013 Austin began a curbside pick-up program where they’d provide citizens with a compost bin that would be collected once a week like regular garbage, except instead of taking it to a landfill where it releases toxins and its energy is wasted, it gets dropped off at compost facilities
research questions
Austin is one of the few cities to take such a huge initiative with regards to decreasing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, but the problem is that there’s no sure way of knowing how much progress is being made, if any. Austin had compost drop-off sites in place long before they began their zero waste goal, and they have since began a curbside compost program. But when it comes to results, there are many questions that need to be answered.
research
To answer my research questions I compiled a variety of datasets. I looked at what waste was being collected, when it was collected, and where it went after collection. I also gathered the population data, the correlating weather data, and researched externl events that may have impacted Austin’s efforts. My hope was that with this data I could create a visualization that will help the user gain insights on the impact that all these factors had on the amount waste collected and help them gain a better understanding of the progress towards Austin’s goal.
the visualization
The main screen is a dashboard the shows you the yearly collection data over time versus the population. It also allows you to see how much of the waste is going to either landfill or compost each year. The user also has the option of seeing a more in-depth look into what’s going on each year by viewing the daily waste collection versus temperature alongside the corresponding final destination of that waste. The diamonds on the daily graphs represent insight into outside influences and events taking place throughout the years. that may or may not be impacting the trends in the data (i.e. a fire at the composting center, or Hurricane Harvey making landfall).
