Step 2:

Selection of Topic

What is your career pathway?

My career pathway is biology and when I am
older I am looking to get more specific and
geared more towards medicine.

What electives do you plan to take in your

career pathway? (Please list all of your
related electives.)
AP Biology, biochem, organic chemistry,
comparative anatomy, precalculus, algebra 1
and 2, integrated science, stats.
!

Your capstone should take one of the topics that are common to your pathway electives and
build a real world project out of that topic. Which topic will you select for your capstone?
The topic of my capstone will be centered around recycling and the effects it has on our world,
this can focus on electives such as organic chemistry, biology and many others.
How will your chosen electives help you create a project about this theme? (Be specific about
each elective.)
With organic chemistry and chemistry we can see the effects of recycling that it has on the
earth and our bodies. But also how recycling works, the chemicals and balanced equations and
the process of recycling.
Through AP biology, we can see the effects that recycling has on the Earth, but more
specifically the ecosystem and what would happen to wild life/humans with/without recycling.
With precalculus and algebra 1 and 2 and stats this can help us solve equations relating to
recycling. As if how many people in the world do we need to recycle in order to make a
change? Using equations and problem solving in these different can help us solve broad
questions and figure out solutions.
Are you willing to work in a group? Circle Yes
Yes
Do you already have a group? Circle Yes or No. If so list the names of the people in your
group along with their pathway
Yes Patrick Sullivan - Biology

Step 3:
Capstone Proposal
Student Name ______Aoife Duffy______________________
Project Advisor________Mrs.Gosselin_____________________________
Career Pathway __________Biology______________

My project idea focuses on a topic related to my career pathway. It will sustain my

interest and I will be able to complete the required research on this topic. It offers an
aspect of new learning and growth for me as I incorporate the 7 core skills. I
understand that my project must have audio/visual evidence and that I will give a
presentation of my work at the capstone fair in March.

Breaking your project into definable steps will make the process much easier for you.
Setting up a timeline will help you begin and assist you in continuing to make progress
throughout the time allotted for the project. Figuring out how much this project is
going to cost may keep you from running into problems later in the project. If you
put some time and effort into planning at the beginning, you will find the process of
completing your project much easier to handle.

1. My Project Title: (Think of a good title. This is how you project will be
identified at the fair)
The incentives and effects of recycling.

2. My goal (s) for this project: (Make sure these have a real world application)
Goals: My goal during capstone is to help create more awareness of recycling in our
town and those around us tohelp manage our world, to slow down global warming.
With our data that we will collect, we can further motivate people to recycle and
stop global warming and the thinning of the ozone layer. In order to do this we can
talkin schools and makesigns and makesurveys.

3. My strategy to accomplish the project:

 Strategy: Every Sunday Pat and I are going to the Flag Football fields and collecting
the recycling bins and noting what and how much people recycle in our town. In
Europe we also took pictures of different recycling systems and how they recycle
there.

Real World Application: Using the recycling bins from the Flag Football fields on
Sundays. With the recycling bins we can analyze how much people recycle and
what they recycle each week. We also plan to usevideos and pictures from our
Europe trip this previous April. We documented people in each country and took
pictures of the different methods of recycling in each different country (France,
Spain and Italy).
5. For my capstone presentation, I plan to use the following visuals, technology
and/or materials:
Check any that apply
__x__ Picture ___x_ Website ____ Pamphlets
___x_ Video ____ Prezi ____ Business Cards
____ PowerPoint __x__ Charts ____ Handouts
____ Other. Please specify.

6. If you are planning on working in a group, you must list the names of your group
members and their pathways below. The last date to change your group is
October 26th. Reminder that all students are individually responsible for each
component of the project.
Patrick Sullivan
Biology

Step 4:
Exploratory Research
What Is Your Working Central Question?
Introduction: The first step in developing your capstone topic is to identify a working
central question. Since your capstone project requires that you answer a central
question, you should try to select a question that interests and that you feel
passionate about. Your central question will be the focus of your research. You should
start with a general question that requires more than just a yes/no answer. You will
be required to do preliminary research based on your central question. During this
step, you must submit your question along with a list of sources to your advisors
before your capstone project can be officially approved. Your central question does
not need to be super complex but it does need to be researchable, related to your
career pathway, and readily useable for a capstone project which could be visually
presented and that demonstrates the depth of the core 21st century skills you have
learned during your years here at Weymouth High.

Central Question Examples:

Example 1: A student in the Math Academy might concentrate on data
analysis.
Central question: How can data analysis be used to calculate the effects of
pollution on the weather in New England?

Example 2: A student in the Humanities Academy might concentrate on

teaching.
Central Question: How can lessons that involve hands-on learning more
effectively help young children learn?
My central question is:
What methods of recycling prove to be the most effective in the United States and
foreign countries?

Central Question Check List.

The Central Question addresses a theme from your academy.
The Central Question requires more than a yes/no answer.
The Central Question can be expressed as a capstone project which will
demonstrate the depth of learned 21st Century skills by the student or
students.
You have read 5 sources about your central question.
You have included with this step an annotated bibliography for at least 5 sources
you have read. Citations should be in MLA style and annotations should provide a
summary, evaluation, and application of the information in the source. (See page 15 for
guidance.)
The Central Question submission includes a preliminary description of how
the student/students plan to address the capstone project which will
answer your central question.
 Patrick and I have been working on our capstone since April vacation
collecting data from European countries (France, Spain, Italy and other
places) to structure our capstone. We have collected a bunch of
dierent methods in which people in both Europe and America recycle,
whether it be from recycling bins, recycling stations, waste prevention
and other things. With these methods we can find the incentives in
which why people recycle: global warming, the greenhouse eect,
preservation, the ozone layer depletion and other causes. From these
causes of recycling we can see why people want to prevent the awful
aects on our world. Our capstone project has collected data where we
can show what will happen if people do not recycle (increase in
temperature, ecosystem disruptiom,ect) and why/how we should stop
this.

The Central Question submission includes a discussion of who will benefit

most from this project (e.g. fields of study, professionals, community).
For our capstone, not just one person, professional, or community will
benefit from this. Everyone will benefit from our capstone, because the
more that people recycle, they save OUR planet. The more people
recycle, other people will follow and it will hopefully create a domino
eect from community to community, state to state, country to country
and beyond. Everyone is involved in recycling to save our planet, we are
a team!

The Central Question submission identifies any preconceived beliefs and

what you will do to ensure your research results is not effected by bias in
your analysis, interpretation of results, and implementation of the capstone
outcome.
 I do not believe that anyone will necessarily disagree with trying to save
our environment. I think that once people realize what is at cost
(example: the depletion of the ozone layer), they will be on board and try
to make some impact to our capstone. The only bias that may come out
of this is people who are extremely passionate about recycling and
saving our planet. These people are pushing others to recycle, which is
not exactly a bad thing.. If anything they are creating that "domino
eect" that we are looking for. But of course, anything of such extremes
that may be considered outrageous will not be included in our data.

The Central Question includes an explanation of why you feel it is

important.
I think that our capstone project is a very important matter, not in one
specific place but around the world. Global warming is aecting
everyone. It is starting at the polar where the ozone layer is depleting
and causing ice to melt. But this leads to more important things like
coastal flooding. I believe that nobody would want that and since we
started this mess, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, it should also
be our job to stop it.

Step 5:
Researching and creating

October:
Pass in your project's annotated bibliography. This will include
annotations from Step 4 and 5 additional annotations due for Step 5
giving you a total of 10 of your 15-20 annotations.
Continue journal entries
o Show progression of the use of 21st century skills
Update your checklist of the skills achieved so far (use your journal
to help you)
Core 21st Description of how you are progressing with the core skill. Refer
Century Skill to the school-wide rubrics to help you with this.
Strategic Due to my annotated bibs and articles that I am reading for my
Reading capstone, I can find the most important concepts, themes and
ideas easily. I do this by highlighting important information such
as quotes, big ideas and pre read, visualize and summarize,
ultimately helping me identify the main purpose of each reading.
As a part of concepts and main ideas, I can make connections
with other articles and ideas, making my capstone and overall
knowledge of the subject stronger. With strategic reading I can
now better determine if a source is useful to me or not and I can
critique it, whether it has a lot or too little data and determine
how reliable my source is by looking at details of the article.
Written Thanks to not only AP english but this capstone, I can eectively
Communicatio not only use information and synthesis it, but also fluently use it
n in papers and annotated bibliographies. By constantly
synthesizing information in my annotated bibliographies, i am
getting more practice using dierent synthesis techniques and
getting more comfortable with it. I can also condense information
better and not use flu or run on sentences, I now know how to
eciently get to the point and analyze the information correctly.
A key to fluency is also organization and how you identify your
evidence. You do not have an interesting or persuasive article if it
does not contain any evidence, or jumps from idea to idea.
Luckily, with the repetitive practice through annotated
bibliographies, I have successfully mastered the concept of
using evidence correctly and organizing it too.

Research Throughout the process of capstone so far, I have been able to

master researching, In this journey I realized first that you cannot
just research things and search the internet if you do not know
exactly the information you are looking for. And that the better
you research is identified (specific) the better information you
will receive. When conducting research I have learned that you
cannot just type in the search bar exactly what you are looking
for, you need to use keywords and phrases. Upon looking up
information you must look at where you get your information
from. Early on in my life I used to think that Wikipedia was an
okay source, luckily now I know that is not the case and when
researching my capstone topic I use the research data base,
scholarly articles and articles from legit places such as
trustworthy newspapers. When reading an article I have also
learned to look at who is writing the article, because they could
be completely unqualified in that area of work.
Problem Throughout the beginning of our capstone, Patrick and have
Solving faced some problems and we needed to find a solution to them.
One that particularly seemed to be a problem was that the first
week that we planned to collect data from the recycling bins, the
Flag Football organization forgot to send them over to Pats
house later on that night. We realized that this would push our
data back a week, but we also needed to figure out a solution.
So we called them that night and got the bins the following day.
Luckily our solution worked and our capstone is working
smoothly now, as there have been no problems thus far. From
this minor problem, we have made sure every week to remind
them to bring over the recycling bins on Sunday nights. As an
evaluation of this problem and progress, as said previously they
have yet to make a mistake again.
Technology Our entire capstone is technology based! I think so far, our
homeroom may be the only one to do everything online. Thus,
our technology skills have increased because we have learned
how to use a new website (eliademy), upload things from our
computer and to communicate online with each other in
discussions. We also use technology to gather our information,
to type up our annotated bibliographies, journals of progress and
to check when the next step is due. To contact the Flag Football
organization we used technology, our phones to contact and call
them and to touch base every week.
 Collaboration Our capstone is one giant example of collaboration. Pat and I
have collaborated all year: in Europe and in and outside of
school to talk about and plan our capstone project. We also
collaborate with our peers, in homeroom and online in our
discussions for each task. We have received opinions, thoughts
and ideas on our project and dierent aspects of it thanks to our
peers. And we have also given back opinions, thoughts and
ideas to our peers on their projects as well. With Ms. Gosselin,
we have set up a meeting and plan to collaborate and bounce
ideas o of one another to make our capstone stronger. Pat and I
have both set aside time to hangout and work on our capstone,
to collect data and discuss what we should do next. During this
time we also make sure that we both are on the same page and
that both of us have successfully completed each of our tasks
and stay on track.
Oral So far we have done some oral communication about our
Communicatio capstone with friends, family and the people at the flag football
n fields on Sundays. We talk with our friends and families about
their opinions on our capstone and if they like our ideas on what
we should do next. At the flag football fields we talk to the
people at the fields and talk to them about our capstone and
watch the recycling bins. I believe that eye contact is a crucial
key to oral communication, you should be strong and believe in
your idea and yourself, because this promotes people to believe
in your ideas as well.

Journal of Progress

The Capstone Project is an exciting and dynamic assignment that calls upon you
to use the skills you have acquired at Weymouth High School in a real world
project of your choice. To help you stay on task, be accountable for your
scheduled timeline, and effectively reflect on your experiences, you will keep a
Journal of Progress during the time you work on the project. The journal of
progress will be a quick and efficient way to show your advisor exactly where you
are in the process, and moreover, will serve as an invaluable resource when you
write your final reflection at the end of the year.

(1) Aoife Duffy

Ms.Gosselin
Journal of Progress 1
16 September 2016
 This week is Patrick Sullivan and Is first week of collecting real data for recycling!!
Previously we have contacted the Flag Football League and asked if they would allow us to
collect data from the recycling bins at the fields. We got three recycling bins: two of the
Weymouth maroon and gold ones and one green metal one. Each Sunday night a man from the
league will collect the bins and give them to us to collect our data. By Sunday night we hope to
collect the bins and get sufficient data: how much the trash bins weigh without the recycle, how
much recycle we received and if our posters will or will not make an impact on peoples
incentives to recycle.
For time, we plan on first going Sunday morning around 7 a.m., when the fields are being et
p to space out of recycling bins and the posters. We plan to put two bins by the entrance with
posters on them, so people can one, see the recycling bins and know where they are, and two,
make sure they see the posters when they first walk in and hopefully motivate them to recycle
their trash to help us collect data. The third recycle bin we put next to the concession stand,
where the food and drinks will be sold. Hopefully by doing this, the recycling bin will be closely
placed by so that people will want to recycle, instead of placing the bins across the field where
no one would like to walk all the way over too. We also plan to hang posters all along the fence
and the field so people can know to recycle, where to recycle, and how it can help our capstone.
We hope that since people can recognize that it is for a school project and they see the posters
and know that bins are around for recycle that this will motivate them more to recycle. Then
every night, when the bins are delivered to Patricks house, together we can weigh each bin every
week and watch the data increase. We are going to do this by, using the recycling bins that were
provided for us by the league, a spring scale that we can use to collect the data with and a
notebook and pen to collect our data down with every week. For the posters we also laminated
them and zip tied them to the field fences and recycling bins so they can firmly stay on and will
not fall off. For obstacles we are nervous that people will still not recycle as much as anticipated.
The posters may not be seen by everyone or the bins could be moved and not strategically
placed, resulting in people just throwing their trash in the closest place possible. Another
problem could be that the league may forget and not bring the recycling bins to the house every
week, where we will then unable to collect data. Besides this, we strongly believe that this will
work and our data will increase steadily each week.

(2) Aoife Duffy

Ms. Gosselin
Journal of Progress 2
25 September 2016

So far our progress has gone great! We went to the field this morning at 7 a.m., and placed the
recycling bins accordingly. Then later on in the day the bins were delivered to Patricks house
and we collected our data! First we had to figure out how much each recycling bin bin weighed
without the recycle in them. For the Weymouth town ones (maroon and gold), the bins weighed
28 pounds. And the green metal recycling bin weighed 31 pounds. Next, it was time to weigh the
recycling from each bin. For our first week we could not really hope for tons of recycling, but
from our data we believe that we are on a steady increase from what we have seen so far. From
both of the Weymouth town recycling bins the amount of recycling that we received was10
pounds. From the green recycling bin we received 6 pounds. Overall, for the week our total
amount of recycling collected was 16 pounds. We believe that this is good for our first week and
that it only goes up from here! So far for 21st century skills we have employed technology and
communication. We created our posters online and printed them out, then ew laminated them and
hung them around the flag football fields. For communication, we contacted the Flag Football
League and asked if we could have recycling bins to collect our data with for capstone. The
posters can also be a form of communication, because we are trying to communicate with the
people at the fields to recycle.

(3) Aoife Duffy

Ms. Gosselin
Capstone: Journal Entry 1
3 October 2016

This is our second week collecting data and we are hoping that the weight of all three
recycling bins will increase! We have put up more posters for recycling and our capstone around
both fields and hope that people will recognize them, see what they are for and that this will
influence them to recycle. We contacted the Flag Football organization again and they picked up
the recycling bins from the following week and brought them back to the fields. This time we
spread the recycling bins out more, instead of putting all three on one field we split them up and
put them on both fields. We put two bins on Libbey field and one on Mitchell Field. By doing
this we hope that people will choose to recycle more since there are recycling bins located in
both fields making it easy for them to recycle. Next week I think it is a good idea to maybe put
recycling bins next to trash bins so that people will be pressured into making a choice: trash or
recycle. But first we are trying our new method this week of splitting up and spreading out the
bins. We will once again, meet on Sunday night when the bins are dropped off at Pats house and
collect data of the weight of each bin using a spring scale. The only problem or concern that we
have for this week is that there is a possibility that there will be a chance of rain, therefore that
may result in few people at the fields, thus less recycling.

(4)Aoife Duffy
Ms. Gosselin
Capstone: Journal entry 2
10 October 2016

Unfortunately, our concerns were right and it did rain all day this Sunday. Due to the rain, not
many people went to the fields ultimately thus a decrease in the amount of recycling for this
week. This may mess up our data when we analyze and condense it for our presentation but we
can always note the weather for further evidence. Later on Sunday night, when the bins were
dropped off at Pats house we gathered the weight for each recycling bin. For the green recycling
bin the weight came to two pounds For the two maroon and gold recycling bins combined, we
got an average weight of four pounds . During this week we used a few different core skills.
Right now I am making use of the technology skill, by typing up my annotated bibliographies
and journals of progress. Pat and I used collaboration by managing our time and meeting up
again on Sunday night to work together and collect data and to make sure that we were both
progressively working on our capstone project. Communication was used when communicating
with the Flag Football organization when they dropped off and picked up the recycling bins. We
also used some problem solving when it rained and our data shifted, we realized that we must
account for the weather and provide this information in the later stages of our capstone. So far
for the most part, everything has been running smoothly for us and we hope that this continues.

Step 6:
Present Findings

November:
Annotated Bibliography for at least another 5 additional sources
used since
Step 5.
Written Synthesis of Findings :
o 2 to 3 pages, list central question.
o Explain the methods of how research was used and where the
information came from.
o Answer central question with citations from research.
o Explain how you will solve the problem.
o Parenthetical citations and works cited page.
Continue journal entries
Begin creation process of presentation product and submit an
updated description of product
Our real world application is finally complete! For eight weeks during the flag
football season, we collected recycled waste with our own recycling bins
provided by the town of Weymouth and posters that we created. Within each of
the eight weeks we collected data of the overall weight collected and at the
end of the flag football season, conducted a survey. We found how impactful/
useful our posters and recycling bins were, how many people recycle and their
opinion on recycling. Our data was overall positive and we are making a graph
to visually show our data as well. For the foreign aspect of our project, we have
tons of pictures and two interviews of people when we went on our Europe visit
this past April to Spain, Italy and France. We feel great and well organized.

Describe what you have done or plan to do to share your capstone with a
real world audience beyond the attendees at the fair. Must show proof of
real world application picture or video.
 We have taken pictures during our trip in Europe: France, Italy and Spain of all
different types of recycling methods that we found. We also did interviews with
different people in each country and asked what they thought about recycling,
if they recycled and follow up questions. We can compare these answers with
the answers we received from our survey that we conducted on Sundays during
the flag football games. We will show these comparisons, data, pictures and
photos in a power point slide and printed out pictures, ect.

Review and revise list of the use of 21st century skills

Core 21st Explicitly discuss how your project shows evidence of
Century Skill proficiency in each of the core skills. Refer to the school-wide
rubrics to help you with this.
Strategic Due to my annotated bibs and articles that I am reading for my
Reading capstone, I can find the most important concepts, themes and
ideas easily. I do this by highlighting important information such
as quotes, big ideas and pre read, visualize and summarize,
ultimately helping me identify the main purpose of each
reading. As a part of concepts and main ideas, I can make
connections with other articles and ideas, making my capstone
and overall knowledge of the subject stronger. With strategic
reading I can now better determine if a source is useful to me
or not and I can critique it, whether it has a lot or too little
data and determine how reliable my source is by looking at
details of the article. After we conducted our surveys utilizing
strategic reading was helpful to look at our data from abroad
and find any skews in our data. To do this we needed to look
into our data very specifically and try to identify why some data
came out the way it did and how we can fix that in the future.
Written Thanks to capstone, I can effectively not only use information
Communicatio and synthesis it, but also fluently use it in papers and annotated
n bibliographies. By constantly synthesizing information in my
annotated bibliographies, i am getting more practice using
different synthesis techniques and getting more comfortable
with it. I can also condense information better and not use
fluff or run on sentences, I now know how to efficiently get to
the point and analyze the information correctly. A key to fluency
is also organization and how you identify your evidence. You do
not have an interesting or persuasive article if it does not
contain any evidence, or jumps from idea to idea. Luckily, with
the repetitive practice through annotated bibliographies, I have
successfully mastered the concept of using evidence correctly
and organizing it too.
Research Throughout the process of capstone so far, I have been able to
master researching, In this journey I realized first that you
cannot just research things and search the internet if you do not
know exactly the information you are looking for. And that the
better you research is identified (specific) the better
information you will receive. When conducting research I have
learned that you cannot just type in the search bar exactly what
you are looking for, you need to use keywords and phrases. Upon
looking up information you must look at where you get your
information from. Early on in my life I used to think that
Wikipedia was an okay source, luckily now I know that is not the
case and when researching my capstone topic I use the research
data base, scholarly articles and articles from legit places such
as trustworthy newspapers. When reading an article I have also
learned to look at who is writing the article, because they could
be completely unqualified in that area of work. Research from
the data base and people who are qualified to write to the
specific information I am reading allow me to expand my
knowledge and enrich and enhance my grasp on the different
types of topics I am researching. Overall I believe that capstone
has enhanced my research skills.
Problem Throughout the beginning of our capstone, Pat and I have faced
Solving some problems and we needed to find a solution to them. One
that particularly seemed to be a problem was that the first
week that we planned to collect data from the recycling bins,
the Flag Football organization forgot to send them over to Pats
house later on that night. We realized that this would push our
data back a week, but we also needed to figure out a solution.
So we called them that night and got the bins the following day.
Luckily our solution worked and our capstone is working
smoothly now, as there have been no problems thus far. From
this minor problem, we have made sure every week to remind
them to bring over the recycling bins on Sunday nights. As an
evaluation of this problem and progress, as said previously they
have yet to make a mistake again. We have had numerous
problems with the weather because for some reason it seemed
to be the best time to rain every Sunday for the past few
weeks, ultimately skewing our data and pushing us back on
when to do the survey. Ultimately we solved this problem, did
some research and did the survey over an extended period of
time, rain or shine and still got the results we were looking for.
Overall throughout capstone, we have been problem solving
every step of the way.

Technology Our entire capstone is technology based! I think so far, our

homeroom may be the only one to do everything online. Thus,
our technology skills have increased because we have learned
how to use a new website (eliademy), upload things from our
computer and to communicate online with each other in
discussions. We also use technology to gather our information,
to type up our annotated bibliographies, journals of progress
and to check when the next step is due. To contact the Flag
Football organization we used technology, our phones to contact
and call them and to touch base every week. We have even
extended our use of technology with our surveys. We used
google docs to type up our surveys and we were able to share
the document between the two of us doc coordinate and edit it
together. We then surveyed an abundant amount of people at
the flag football fields and used our phones to collect the data.
Using technology throughout this process has made it easier to
share our data, research and ideas.
 Collaboration Another name for capstone should be collaboration. Pat and I
are constantly and have collaborated all year: in Europe and in
and outside of school to talk about and plan our capstone
project. We also collaborate with our peers, in homeroom and
online in our discussions for each task. We have received
opinions, thoughts and ideas on our project and different
aspects of it thanks to our peers. And we have also given back
opinions, thoughts and ideas to our peers on their projects as
well. With Ms. Gosselin, we have set up a meeting and plan to
collaborate and bounce ideas off of one another to make our
capstone stronger. Pat and I have both set aside time to hangout
and work on our capstone, to collect data and discuss what we
should do next. During this time we also make sure that we both
are on the same page and that both of us have successfully
completed each of our tasks and stay on track. We communicate
when we should meet up on Sundays at the flag football field
and when/how many people we should survey. We soon think we
will extend our capstone farther with more real life applications
which will involve more collaboration with others to better our
capstone.

Oral So far we have done some oral communication about our

Communicatio capstone with friends, family and the people at the flag football
n fields on Sundays. We talk with our friends and families about
their opinions on our capstone and if they like our ideas on what
we should do next. At the flag football fields we talk to the
people at the fields and talk to them about our capstone and
watch the recycling bins. I believe that eye contact is a crucial
key to oral communication, you should be strong and believe in
your idea and yourself, because this promotes people to believe
in your ideas as well. We also plan to further extend our
capstone with more real life applications which will involve
talking to more people to get more information about recycling.
We have also talked to people on Sundays about our recycling
bins and if they recycle and eat (our survey), we did this face to
face with furthers our use of oral communication skills.

Synthesis Paper:
Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
30 November 2016
Central Question: What are the underlying incentives of recycling in the United States and
European countries?

Global warming is a monstrous problem in our world today: climate change, flooding,
OZone layer depletion. These disruptions have caused major wind patterns, ocean circulation,
concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere and even rainfall in the Amazon (Foster). How on
Earth is this massive problem going to be fixed and by who? Well, that is what Patrick Sullivan
and Is entire capstone is on! We recognize that luckily over the years more awareness about
recycling has increased as it will hopefully keep inclining, however to make sure there is a
constant incline we most know that the incentives, or motivations are for recycling. This is
because although one would like to think that everyone is a do gooder, there is still a problem.
Although low landfill fees and a fragmented waste-management system have kept the countrys
recycling rate at around 34% for two decades [recycling] requires 95% less energy and creates
90% less greenhouse-gas emissions than virgin stock, yet more than 40 billion aluminium cans
hit America's landfills every year resulting in $11.4 billion dollars of recycling thrown away
each year. Some people still do not care enough or do not see the significance of recycling, some
need that extra push to recycle, that little reward- the incentive. To successfully aid in the
increase in recycling rates, Patrick and I needed to know what motivated people, in both the
United States and European countries to recycle and this is where our research comes into place!
For our research, we at first had a bit of trouble but got the hang of it; by using keywords and
short phrases we successfully found credible and worthy research for our capstone! Since we had
a large topic, we had an abundance of research to find so all of our research is from different
places, some being from recycling companies on the East and West Coast, recycling and
environmental issues from articles written by environmentalists and more. These articles were all
found on google and sometimes in the scholarly articles section of google, to discard any
unreliable articles. To have full knowledge about our topic, we researched how the United States
and European countries recycled, the different methods of recycling, environmental issues as a
resultant of global warming and of course, the people's opinions on recycling.
To really know why people recycle, why they choose and want to, we first had to find out
how they recycled! For this part of the research process, there was a great amount of information
to take in: we had to find methods of recycling in Europe and different parts of the United States
such as the East and West Coasts. In Europe, the EEA really does a successful job of recycling
where they have created the Waste Framework Directive: a waste management hierarchy:
starting with prevention, followed by preparing for re-use, recycling, recovery and ending with
disposal. The objective is to prevent waste as much as possible, to use the generated waste as a
resource and to minimise the amount of waste sent to landfills (Reichel). The EEA does a great
job tracking the progress of recycling from a variety of countries in Europe and continually
analyzing their data, looking for the best methods to use. We found more recycling habits from
the United Kingdom in Attitudes to waste management options, where multiple methods of
recycling were utilized such as recycling (the formal way), reuse and composting, landfill,
incineration and waste minimisation. While many Europeans explained that they did not support
certain types of recycling methods that were being utilized, they did believe that recycling rates
have increased due to more support and how easy recycling is. This easy described recycling
in America is also known as single stream recycling. Within our research we found that it is most
common among Americans to employ this method. Information on single stream recycling was
efficiently found and understood thanks to VANGEL, a recycling company who explained that
single stream recycling is a method of recycling which allows paper, cardboard, plastic, glass
and metal to be mixed together for pickup, and has been on the uprise in residential recycling (or
collection) programs, in particular and although it is the easier method of recycling it does not
mean that it is the best. Out of the two dual stream recycling, source separation recycling- has
many benefits, as claimed by lower levels of contamination, higher quality and more valuable
recovered material and lower costs to process the collected recyclables (VANGEL). As
mentioned before both methods of recycling are useful but single stream recycling is often
projected as the easier and most efficient way of recycling. However, while it may be a quicker
way of recycling- by just dumping all recyclable waste into one bin, this method costs more
money due to employment of those who will eventually have to sort out the recyclable waste,
pick up trucks to come by your door and pick them up, etc. While these two methods are
common among the United States we went in depth and looked at how these methods were used
on the East and West Coasts. On the East Coast we specifically looked into recycling methods on
the South Shore and in even more depth: into our recycling methods in the town of Weymouth!
Here we found that to find out what was recycled and not was considered either too good to be
trashed or too bad to recycled where you were then given further categorized based on your
first choice such as bulky, appliances, scrap metals [which can be scheduled for pickup] and
yard waste [which is picked up at the yard frequently] (Galkowski) and electronics,
automotive, mercury, paint, cooking oil, books and textiles (Galkowski). We then compared this
information to that found on the West Coast, specifically in California where there were very
similar charts applied to residents. All in all we found that the most common methods of
recycling in the United States were single and dual stream recycling and based on the recyclable
waste, depended on how it was categorized and recycled.
The next step was to find out what would and has happened if not many people recycled,
with this we could motivate more people to recycle considering it means saving our world! A
great variety of problems result in environmental issues that stems from the lack of recycling. As
many know global warming is a significant problem in our world today, but do not know the real
dangers it is causing to everyday life. A major problem is the depletion of the OZone layer,
where we have made an international effort to stop the production of CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons,
it is still affected and still remains a serious problem in our world. Depletion has had a great
impact on the environment such as changing wind patterns, rising sea levels and concentrations
of carbon in the atmosphere. Based on these implications, scientists have recognized a shift in
wind patterns that are amplifying the intensity of ocean currents: sending water filled with carbon
from the deep ocean to coastal lines. This old water is very carbon-rich, from dead organic
matter that sinks to the bottom of the ocean (Dr.Waugh)... but its effects are dangerous, ocean
acidification and atmospheric carbon. Changing wind patterns have also caused conflicts within
rain cycles, especially in the Amazon. Other research has recognized that there is an [an]
unusually rapid increase in Earths average surface temperature over the past century primarily
due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels (Ichoku). Scientists have also
regarded the greenhouse effect and its enhancements, explaining how 70% of sunlight on the
Earth is absorbed and radiated,thermal infrared radiation (Ichoku), by the ocean, rocks, and the
air. This radiation is beneficial to us and the Earth, known as the greenhouse effect and without
it, the Earth would be freezing. Unfortunately what is concerning is that humans have been
increasing the concentration of the greenhouse effect and decreasing the amount of carbon
absorbing trees. Due to humans, carbon dioxide levels have increased nearly 38 percent as of
2009 and methane levels have increased 148 percent. As a result of the increasing amount of
used fossil fuels, more of the greenhouse fossil fuels have been absorbed into the atmosphere
causing a fixed increased rate of Earths temperature and increasing the efficiency of the
greenhouse effect. With this research we can show the long term implications of global warming
and with these scary results, we hope that this will ultimately motivate more people to recycle
thus minimizing greatly hazardous environmental issues.
Finally, for the best results of finding the real motivation of recycling we need to find
valuable opinions on recycling and who better to ask than people who actually recycle! The
research article that we found most pertain to opinions on recycling was Public Attitudes
Towards Recycling and Waste Management. The study was conducted in Europe, where the
Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister asked people about their general opinions and attitudes
towards different types of recycling. The different types of recycling ranged, from that of formal
recycling to reuse and composting, landfill, incineration and waste minimization. As a
generalization of recycling, 94-98% of people in the United Kingdom had overwhelming public
support for recycling composting (Public Attitudes), an environment beneficial activity. The
study found that only the 11-15% of the population found recycling did more harm than good
where as everyone else more or less thought that the consequences of recycling on environmental
issues were acceptable considering the beneficial factors it brings. Within the introduction
researchers also mentioned the discovery of the impact of incentives, where if people receive
incentives such as refundable deposits and small scale financial incentives (ex. returning
corona bottles, supermarket reward schemes, and the appeal to children are well established in
peoples minds (Public). The article was divided up on the different types of recycling, starting
with landfill where where the majority of people concluded that burying waste in the ground
(landfill) has a negative effect on the environment (Public), although many feel that they are
not very informed on the topic of landfill itself. For this individual type of recycling, researchers
included the opinions of residents, specifically when it came to plastic many believed that it was
the most abundant material and would be the worst to be buried. This can be seen when
expressed by males 25-40, social class ABC1, Greenwich: Plastic is probably more important
than all of them put together and you cant get rid of it. Glass does eventually break down into
the soil, paper rots, clothes rot. Next was incineration where two thirds of people felt less
informed about vs. landfills yet still had negative thoughts about them as costly and dangerous
regarding dioxins, smells, ash residue and emissions of carbon dioxide (Public). Although not
a complete rejection of incinerations, people feel that it should be kept to a minimum and used if
necessary such as with clinical waste and control of burning materials. Finally researchers talked
about waste minimization and how the public felt that if they were to begin this process, it would
be in the hands of the government and manufacturers because they produce the most excess of
product waste, this is seen when expressed by males, 30-45, social class C1C2, Daventary: The
suppliers of the new product should have a responsibility to pick up the new product. Thanks to
this informative article, Patrick and I took out of this that many although they do not have full
knowledge of every single type of recycling, do believe that it is useful and if possible,
specifically in Europe they should increase the utilization of waste minimization.
Thanks to our hard work and abundance of research, Patrick and I feel that we have a
nice grasp on the topic of recycling. With our large amount of knowledge, we believe that we
know what will motivate people, the real underlying incentives to get people to recycle. We
believe that incentives are both fairly similar in both the United States and European countries
and that they will remain constant. By acknowledging these incentives we can hopefully further
increase the amount of recycling around our town. Recognized in our research, there are
dangerous environmental issues that will continue to emerge if we do not increase our use of
recycling. We know that many want to and do recycle, using the single stream recycling because
it is for them a quick and easy method to slowly help our world. With these great stakes, which
can only be stopped or decreased by us, the world, we have correctly identified the incentives to
do so in the United States and European countries.

Work Cited
B, E. "Recycling in America: In the Bin | The Economist." The Economist. The Economist
Newspaper, 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

"Europe's Objective: Recycling More Waste and Send Less to Landfills."European Environment
Agency. European Union, 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 16 Sept. 2016.

Foster, Joanna M. "The Enduring Effects of Ozone Depletion." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.

Galkowski, Claire. "Weymouth Recycling Guide." South Shore Recycling Cooperative. South
Shore Recycling Cooperative, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Ichoku, Charles. "Global Warming: Feature." NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Public Attitudes Towards Recycling and Waste Management (n.d.): 12-17. Cabinet Office, Sept.
2002. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

"Understanding Single vs. Dual Stream Recycling - Vangel Shredding and Recycling." Vangel
Shredding and Recycling RSS. VANGEL, 20 July 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

Step 7:
Selection of Presentation Method
Describe how you will share your capstone with a real world audience beyond the
attendees at the fair.
For our real life application we have created signs and brought more recycling bins
to the Flag Football League during the fall to help increase recycling rates in our
town. Our real life application we believe was successful, because on the last week
of the season we asked parents and kids how the recycle bins and signs had effected
their choice to recycle- all positive feedback. We plan to keep the bins and signs up
in the upcoming fall and so forth. We believe that we are trying to bring about more
recycling awareness throughout the school and sporting events- but have not
decided where yet.
Describe how you will present your capstone to your advisor and the attendees at
the capstone fair.
Pat and I will utilize a trifold with the basics of our capstone. Our central question
will be presented at the top of the trifold and we feel that we on either side of the
trifold will do cause on one side and effect on the other or split it into American
ways of recycling on one side and its motivations and European ways and
motivation on the other side.We will also bring a computer where our portfolios
will be presented online and perhaps and iPad to display our pictures and videos
from Europe.

Please sketch out and label what your tri-fold will look like and describe in writing
what your table will look like at the capstone fair night.
Our table will obviously include our trifold with our central question written on the
top with information and pictures about recycling, its causes and effects, its
motivations and our real life application. We will also have a computer that will
have our portfolio on it so people can go through it and we will possibly bring an
iPad as well so people can view pictures from Europe and our real life application
as well that will not be presented on the trifold.

Describe how your presentation plan will allow you to showcase your mastery of each
of the core 21st century skills

Core 21st Description of how the presentation of your project will help you
Century Skill showcase your mastery of this 21st century skill. Refer to the
school-wide rubrics to help you with this.
Strategic In order to successfully present our capstone we have had to do
Reading tons of research- and to find the best information possible to
answer our central question we have had to strategically read.
This can be observed when creating our annotated bibliographies,
we had to strategically read many articles online- some good some
back to find the best research information possible to display on
the trifold. Thanks to this research I feel as if my strategic reading
skills have been enhanced.
Written Mastery of written communication has been displayed
Communication everywhere! I have written a synthesis paper, annotated
bibliographies, journals of progress, information for our real world
application and more. I think the most efficient uses of written
communication were between the synthesis paper, which really
helped me enhance my writing skills but also further helped me
recognize that i do have a full grasp on my capstone information.
Written communication could also be seen with communication
between Pat, Ms. Gosselin and I. Pat and I are constantly in
communication with each other- by testing each other and
checking in to see how we are doing with our pieces of capstone.
With Ms. Gosselin, we have emailed back and forth when I have
questions about my capstone or eliademy or if we need to have a
meeting. I also talk to my peers online for feedback and ideas.
Written communication is used daily in my capstone.
Research Another name for capstone is research! Throughout each step i
have in some way done research. In order to successfully
accomplish capstone I have needed to research a bunch of
different topics to see what interests me. After picking a topic, i
had find information about it, i needed to do research. I needed
to research how people in American and Europe recycle, the
different methods, the causes and effects, and why they recycle. I
then out my research into annotated bibliographies and a
synthesis paper. Now i will continue to do research as I try to find
the bet way to present my capstone!
Problem For problem solving, this was centered around our real life
Solving application. The first week, the Flag Football League forgot to
deliver the recycling bins to Pats house that Sunday night so we
were unable to collect data. Fortunately we solved this problem
by calling the League and had them delivered the next day and
got to take data. Another problem was that for many of the weeks
throughout our real life application it rained, so our data was
going to be skewed. To solve this problem we decided keep a
journal and each week write down the date, how much recycle we
received and the weather so on bad days we knew why we
received little to no recycle and from this we could also compare
it to the good days. Overall, we utilized problem solving
frequently.
 Technology Our capstone is almost all technology based, pretty much besides
the trifold for the presentation! We use eliademy to upload all of
our steps and this is where we do discussions and get feedback
and ideas from Ms. Gosselin and our peers. I have also used google
docs to type up all of my steps and we plan to create our portfolio
online and use a mac to display it at the capstone fair.
Collaboration Throughout all of capstone I have collaborated with my partner,
Patrick Sullivan. We talk on a regular basis and check in on each
other to see if we have done the steps on time and make sure that
we are both on the same page. We also talk to our advisor Ms.
Gosselin for ideas and feedback regularly.
Oral For oral communication we talk to Ms. Gosselin in homeroom and
Communication during meeting we schedule for ideas, feedback and when we run
into problems. During our real life application on the last week we
talked to people and got their feedback on how our recycling bins
and signs had effected their choice to recycle during the weeks of
Flag Football season.

Journals of Progress (Quarter 2):

(1) Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Journal of Progress Step 6 #1
6 November 2016

This is the second to last week of the Flag Football League in Weymouth, so our data for this real
life application will be coming to an end. This upcoming Sunday we plan on conducting our
survey amongst the people at the flag football fields next Sunday will a set of questions:
1. Do you recycle? (Did you notice our recycling bins/ did you use them)? YES NO
SOMETIMES
2. How often do you recycle? ALWAYS SOMETIMES NEVER
3. What do you recycle? CARDBOARD PLASTIC CANS OTHER
4. Do you think it is important to recycle? YES NO MAYBE
5. Are you a parent or child? PARENT CHILD
We hope that the answers from this survey will help show that our recycling bins and our posters
on them and around the fields did make a difference in society and that it prompted more people
to recycle. After this week I think we will decide whether or not to extend our real life
applications further and find other recycling bins in the community to use and to collect data
from- but we are not positive yet. To do the surveys we have allotted time on Sunday (8:30 a.m)
after Pats game to go around the fields and ask parents and children the questions and after look
at our data. To do this we will use our communication skills to talk to people at the fields face to
face and ask questions. We will use our phones (technology) to collect the answers from the
surveys and later use excel to look at and graph our data. The only problem that we anticipate is
that like every other Sunday for some odd reason it will rain and this will cause a decrease in the
amount of people that will show up to the games. Thus resulting in a short number of data that
we can collect.

(2)Aoife Duffy
Journal of Progress Step 6 #2
13 November 2016

So today it did indeed start to drizzle but that did not cause any decrease in the number of
people that showed up at the games today! Pat and I collected tons of data from a variety of both
children and parents (using communication). As previously mentioned we used our phones to ask
the questions and to write down the answers (technology). After collecting and typing the data up
on my phone I easily sent the data to Pat and from here we plan to upload it to excel and move
on from there. From our survey we came to the conclusion that our real life application was a
success! Despite two sets of data (both of which were children) everyone noticed our signs and
recycling bins and used them. We found that people mostly recycled either plastic or cans and
would recycle every chance that they could. This means that overall our recycling bins and
posters did make a change in our community, showed that people do recycle and with the help of
our posters we prompted more people to recycle. From our surveying and collecting the data on
our phones we used the core skill of technology, we used communication to talk to people face to
face and asking them our questions. We utilized collaboration because we used google docs to
share and work on the survey questions together and both asked and collected the data together.
We plan to utilize the core skill of strategic reading when we look at the data more closely and
look for any skews and determine what was the cause.

(3) Aoife Duffy

Ms. Gosselin
Journal of Progress 1- Step 7
December 11th, 2017

So far everything is looking great! Pat and I do not have to worry about our real life application
because we completed it in the fall. All that we must do is make sure that all of the steps so far
are complete, including Step 7. Right now the next thing to do is figure out if we want to do the
extra annotated bibliographies and how we want to present our capstone at the fair. We will talk
over the next week and decide what to do next. We have also already had our meeting with Ms.
Gosselin and she says that we are on the pathway to success after showing her our pictures and
findings from our capstone.

(4) Aoife Duffy

Ms. Gosselin
Journal of Progress 2- Step 7
December 20th, 2016

Everything is going smoothly, all of our work is complete and correct. Pat and I decided that we
would create our portfolio online with the website provided by Ms. Gosselin. We will work on
that sometime soon when we start mixing our research together. We have also decided to do the
extra five annotated bibliographies for our capstone. We talked also decided that we were
possibly going to display our finding in Europe and our video interviews technology we just are
not positive is we want to do it on the same computer as the laptop or bring in an ipad and
display them on there- it depends on how willing the pictures are to be transported from one
laptop to another! Lastly, we have pretty much brought up a few ideas about our trifold. We have
for the most part figured out that on the trifold that one side of it will be about America and how
we recycle here, motivations, ect. And on the other side the European countries and their
methods, motivation, ect.. Obviously some things may change but for the most part we have
everything under control!

Annotated Bibliographies:

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Capstone Step 4: Annotated Bib 1
11 September 2016
Foster, Joanna M. "The Enduring Effects of Ozone Depletion." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.

In Joanna Fosters article subjecting the depletion of the Ozone layer, the drastic effects
have been tracked since first noticed by scientists in 1985. While we have made an international
effort to stop the production of CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone layer is still affected and
still remains a serious problem in our world. Foster recognizes that yes, we have made an
universal effort to put Ozone depletion to an end through various methods (recycling being one),
we are still seeing the effects through its influence of major wind patterns, ocean circulation,
concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere and even rainfall in the Amazon. Joanna notes these
significant influence, utilizing different studies, such as that from John Hopkins University,
where scientists have recognized a shift in wind patterns that are amplifying the intensity of
ocean currents: sending water filled with carbon from the deep ocean to coastal lines. This old
water is very carbon-rich, from dead organic matter that sinks to the bottom of the
ocean (Dr.Waugh)... but its effects are dangerous, ocean acidification and atmospheric carbon.
Changing wind patterns have also caused conflicts within rain cycles, especially in the Amazon.
Foster notes these hazardous effects that the depletion that the Ozone has initiated, however,
towards the end of her article informs us of the little good that has come from our efforts to stop
this depletion. For the first time, the ozone layer hole had shrunk and had been in a minimal
state, smaller than that from anything before.
I thought that this article was useful in many ways. It covers a variety of ways that global
warming is affecting us environmentally. It was also very useful that Foster when giving data
also provided the links to further her resources and which also helps me with data and to better
understand the article. The article is organized well, it starts with information at the beginning of
global warming dating back to 10985 and then Foster makes her way to today. Foster also
recognizes the Ozone layer, what it is, what it does for us, why the depletion is happening to it
and the drastic effects. Foster can also be considered a reliable source for this topic because she
is an environmentalist, passionate about conservation and development issues relating to climate
change.
We can employ this article within our capstone to show the hazardous effects that will happen to
our universe if people do not recycle. With Fosters data and studies we can utilizes these in our
environmental side of our capstone, the environmental effects on the ecosystem and even
biological effects it may have on animal populations. Although Joannas studies were not
specific, as it was merely an article stating the effects of the depletion, we can now further look
into these implications, intensively. This will be possible because with every few pieces of
information Joanna set links to more specific pieces of the studies. This article was very helpful
in our steps for Capstone, opening our eyes to environmental factors.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Capstone Step 4: Annotated Bib 2
15 September 2016
B, E. "Recycling in America: In the Bin | The Economist." The Economist. The Economist
Newspaper, 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

` This article by E.B. talks about how recycling in the United States is not working
sufficiency in companies because of us. E.B. explains how companies such as Coca-Cola and
Walmart have committed to use at least 25% of recycled items in their products by 2015.
Unfortunately, this has not been able to happen because consumers have not recycled abundantly.
For these businesses recycled products should be remarkable cheaper, but do to the consumers
who do not recycle correctly, or at all, E.B. says that Low landfill fees and a fragmented waste-
management system have kept the countrys recycling rate at around 34% for two decades
[recycling] requires 95% less energy and creates 90% less greenhouse-gas emissions than virgin
stock, yet more than 40 billion aluminum cans hit America's landfills every year resulting in
$11.4 billion dollars of recycling thrown away each year. For companies who have made the
commitment to use recycled problems more, this is obviously a problem, where eight big
companies including Walmart and Coca- Cola have formed the Closed Loop Fund. This is
initially supposed to increase recycling as it offers low interest loans to cities for better recycling
methods. As E.B. further extends his explanation of the lack of recycling in America, he gets to
the main point: incentives. Americans do not have the incentive, or motivation, to recycle, to take
the time to sort out their trash or look for a recycling bin near by. Many companies have tried to
increase recycling with bigger and more bins distributed in cities, but see little results.
Companies such as Walmart and Coca-Cola E.B. concludes, must find a efficient way to recycle
to meet their goals.
I thought that this article was not only very interesting but also very reliable. E.B. focuses
on the United States recycling procedures throughout the entire article and gave a variety of data
and percentages of how many people recycled, how many did not, our percentage goal for
America to recycle and where we are now. It was very helpful that he included the names of the
big eight companies, such as Coca - Cola and Walmart. Not only did E.B. specify the companies
but he also included what policies and they were a part of and what those policies and funds
planned on doing for recycling. Although the paragraph was focused on America, it was also
helpful that E.B. included at the end how Europe was doing and their tactics for recycling. The
only downside to this article is that I could not identify a specific name for the author just their
initials, so I was unable to trace the author.
 This will be very helpful to our capstone because the main theme of our capstone is the
incentives of recycling. This article essentially covered exactly that! Why people may or may not
recycle, who is recycling (Walmart and Coca-Cola), why people may not recycle and how they
are trying to fix it. Using the specific names of companies trying to recycle is a big help to our
capstone because we can now include them in our data and be able to trace their progress thus
far. It was also helpful to see why some people do not recycle and this will help us when we are
doing our real world application because we can focus it off of this information. Overall this is
one of the best articles with useful information on the incentives of recycling.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Capstone Step 4: Annotated Bib 3
15 September 2016

Tierney, John. "The Reign of Recycling." The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Oct.
2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

In John Tierneys article he informs the public of the downsides of recycling and what
has really been going on in our world. He recalls in 1996 when he negatively wrote about
recycling and then goes forward into time and talks about recycling today and how it has
transformed a little. Yes we recycle our cans and plastic water bottles, but Tierney questions
what good this has actually done for the environment: Despite decades of exhortations and
mandates, its still typically more expensive for municipalities to recycle household waste than to
send it to a landfill. Prices for recyclable materials have plummeted because of lower oil prices
and reduced demand for them overseas. Tierney further explains that while companies are
pushing for recycling everywhere and this may happen in places such as San Francisco, it is not
working in places like the Bronx. This leaves the resultant that prices for recycling increase for
companies, but they still set high goals and policies such as the zero -waste policy (Tierney) to
increase recycling rate of 25%. Tierney then points to recycling methods as the costly product, as
people recycle (although not in sufficient amounts), to recycle we call for extra trucks and
supplies which costs extra money from communities. The article concludes that although various
policies have been made and there has been extensive methods to recycle, cities have been
burying garbage for thousands of years, and its still the easiest and cheapest solution for trash
How can you build a sustainable city with a strategy that cant even sustain itself? (Tierney).
This article was very helpful to see recycling through a different view, almost a realistic
view. Everyone hopes for recycling to be as beneficial as possible, but someone needs to bring us
back to reality and that is John Tierney. He does this well with numerous studies and data from
multiple sources, directors and CEOS of different recycling companies, mayors from different
towns and different economists. Tierney is very helpful and shows both sides of recycling. While
people want to increase recycling everywhere, Tierney explains how this is costly and how it
does not economically work as well as we planned. As far as being a reliable source, John
Tierney can be considered very reliable. As previously mentioned in 1996, he wrote an article on
recycling when it first started. He went to Yale for journalism and then spent a year at Freedom
Forum Media Studies Center in New York study the environment and recycling. Due to his
countless studies, I feel that Tierney is a reliable source.
 This article will be helpful as a complexity to our capstone. We mostly intend to focus on
the incentives, the motives of recycling. Why people do it, how they do it and in different
methods. While we show all the positive ways that recycling has made a change in our world it is
also great to show the other side of it too with this article. We can show that although we have
made great strides to increase recycling rates and create different methods, it is not working as
well as we wanted it to. With this information we can also creatively think of ways to resolve this
problem, how to make it work. This will be a great source in our capstone to help strive further in
recycling as we have now seen the downsides and why it is not working as well as many
Americans have hoped.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Capstone Step 4: Annotated Bib 4
16 September 2016
"Europe's Objective: Recycling More Waste and Send Less to Landfills."European Environment
Agency. European Union, 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 16 Sept. 2016.

The article begins with waste as a negative impact on the environment, going into runoff
landfills, increasing the climate change and more. Reichel explains how Europe and the EEA
tries to impact fully use recycling, by creating the Waste Framework Directive: a waste
management hierarchy: starting with prevention, followed by preparing for re-use, recycling,
recovery and ending with disposal. The objective is to prevent waste as much as possible, to use
the generated waste as a resource and to minimize the amount of waste sent to
landfills (Reichel). The EEA then tracks the progress of this method all throughout different
countries and collect data and analyze it. They consider what was adopted and worked the best,
how much waste was recycled and from there adopt more incentives, policies and methods to
increase the use of recycling. Reichel then moves on to talk about the positive effects of
recycling, how much was actually recycled, which increased from 30% in 2004 to 41% 2014. As
explained before the EEA methods that work best, such as raising landfill taxes for waste, which
works in many countries. Next Reichel explains the challenges of getting people to recycle.
Unfortunately there is still 427 kg of waste per person, and it only gets worse with new products
constantly entering the market. With this it is hard to come up with money to beat these different
methods of recycling because they are costly and it takes time to sort through trash and recycle
constantly. Another interesting thing that European countries are doing required by the WPU is
waste prevention. Countries are required to come up with programs, mostly emphasizing waste
prevention.
This article is very helpful for the European side of our capstone. We are not only
focusing on American methods of recycling but also European countries as well. It is interesting
to learn about the different companies such as EEA and WPU that collectively meet and make
new methods and come up with new motives to increase recycling. Its interesting to see the
different methods such as waste prevention instead of just recycling compared to America. This
article although we do not know the author can be considered credible because it is all based off
of Almut Reichel interview. Almut is Project manager of the Sustainable Consumption &
Production and waste project and also is a part of the European Environment Agency. From this,
I believe that Reichel is a reliable source and knows what she is talking about.
 This article will be very useful for our capstone, because we know have a European
article to employ for our data. Before reading this article we had brief knowledge about recycling
in Europe, or much of what their methods were. It is really interesting to see that they are more
focused on waste prevention than recycling itself. This is unique compared to the United States
and will be of great use when explaining the different methods in recycling from different
countries and continents.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Capstone Step 4: Annotated Bib 5
18 September 2016

Ichoku, Charles. "Global Warming: Feature." NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

This scientific article from NASA focuses on global warming around the world. It begins
with answering, what is global warming?: [an] unusually rapid increase in Earths average
surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as
people burn fossil fuels (Ichoku). Ichoku then uses a line graph to show the mean surface
temperature throughout the Earth, where in the last 50 years the temperature has rose 0.3
degrees. Then the article shifts towards the greenhouse effect and its enhancements, explaining
how 70% of sunlight on the Earth is absorbed and radiated,thermal infrared radiation (Ichoku),
by the ocean, rocks, and the air. This radiation is beneficial to us and the Earth, known as the
greenhouse effect and without it, the Earth would be freezing. Unfortunately what is concerning
is that humans have been increasing the concentration of the greenhouse effect and decreasing
the amount of carbon absorbing trees. Ichoku explains that as a result, since the Industrial
Revolution, carbon dioxide levels have increased nearly 38 percent as of 2009 and methane
levels have increased 148 percent. As a result of the increasing amount of used fossil fuels,
more of the greenhouse fossil fuels have been absorbed into the atmosphere causing a fixed
increased rate of Earths temperature and increasing the efficiency of the greenhouse effect.
To start, this article is very useful because it is from NASA, they constantly are collecting
data and tracking the problems of global warming. Although a short article it was very helpful
with various, understandable graphs that correlated with the topics (greenhouse effect and the
increase/decrease of carbon dioxide and methane). All of the data was accurately identified and
labeled and everything was explain thoroughly, but they could have expanded more on the
results of global warming than just temperature. They also could have further explained why
people use fossil fuels, etc. Charles Ichoku is also a reliable source, he is a research physical
scientist with the Climate and Radiation Laboratory at NASA. Ichoku specializes in fire
energetics, emissions research, environmental processes and water cycle dynamics, ultimately
qualifying him to have relevance and credibility in the subject.
This article is helpful towards our capstone because it focuses on one topic and is very
specific. Although the article was not length the graphs provided and the data they show are very
helpful and can be employed for the causes of global warming and motivate people to recycle.
Just the definition given by NASA of global warming and the introduction is very helpful to
employ, and very understandable to people who are not familiar with global warming and the
greenhouse effect. In this article I also learned more about the greenhouse effect, and how the
radiation of heat also known as thermal infrared radiation is the reason that the Earths
temperature is increasing at a fixed rate. With this keyword we can look up more information
related to it and use the terminology efficiently. We can also collect more data beyond this one
from NASA, or even compare this data to others to see how global warming has increased vs.
seeing the increased use of recycling.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bib 1
09 October 2016

"The Recycling Cycle How Materials Are Recycled." Recycling Guide. Fubra Limited, 25 June
2008. Web. 09 Oct. 2016

This is a very helpful article from the United Kingdom informing people how to recycle. It
lists way more than your average paper, bottles and cans recycling cycle. It goes into detail on
how to recycle: asbestos, batteries, building materials, clinical waste, composting, computers,
electrical equipment, furniture, glass, metal, mobiles, paint/oil, paper, plastic, printer cartridges,
recycling banks, textiles, vehicles and wood. Each recycled matter has its own little tab with
information on the recycling cycle and how the particular material is recycled. For some
materials that people may not be familiar with, such as asbestos, the article provides background
information on what it is: building insulation material that was used in the 1970s, if there are
different types: blue, brown and white and how to recycle it and who to ask. These little sub
articles talk about how to safely recycle these materials as some can be hazardous.
This article was very helpful because it had way more information than what I was looking
for, including multiple different materials that could be recycled, some that I have not even heard
of before. This article is also a good reference for own European countries aspect because they
may use different methods and people to recycle their materials and have a completely different
recycling cycle all together. It will be nice to compare this to U.S. ways, as it will also be
essentially easy to understand because each material is broken down into sub articles. Although
this does not have an author, it is published by the Furba Limited - a business known widely to
help innovators of recycling and to help the larger population to recognize and learn new skills to
recycle. Overall this article was very helpful explaining each step of the recycling process for
each material and going into depth about each one-their background information and etc.
I will most definitely be using this article in my capstone. It is not only helpful in learning the
recycling process, but in specific ways for each given material. It is also nice to now have the
knowledge that besides bottles, cans and paper we recycle way- way more materials such as
computers, textiles and more. These materials and their information that was provided can
further our evidence of why people should recycle- because there are so many different things
one can recycle! It will also be a good article to use to compare to perhaps different ways that the
United States may recycle these materials.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography - 2
19 October 2016

Mitchell, Nancy. "Here's What Really Happens to All That Stuff You Recycle - NPR." Apartment
Therapy. AT Media, 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

This article circulates about what actually happens to your stuff when you recycle it, hence the
title of the article. Although a sort of miniature, first person article about Nancys personal
experience finding out about recycling and where it goes, this is a very helpful article. As
previously mentioned Nancy starts off stating that she is a single-stream recycler.. From here
she describes what that is: the advantage of this approach is that, since it's a lot easier, way more
stuff gets recycled. The disadvantage is that at some point, all that stuff has to get
sorted (Mitchell) . Continuing to the next step in the process: where it goes after leaving your
house. In Nancys article it is taken to the MRF - or Materials Recovery Facility and how the
optical sorter here helps to sort out all of the single stream recycling. Nancy continues to
describe how this machine works, however she gets to the most important part of the article at
the end: that 25% of single stream recycling goes to the dump. This is unfortunately because all
items are mixed in together so things get soggy or break. Ultimately Nancy leaves the message
that people should learn more about recycling, especially is they are in her shoes as single stream
recyclers and to try and change.

Although Nancy Mitchell is considered a senior writer and not necessarily considered a
credible source because she did not major in biology or environmental science, this article still
has its pros. Many people have and are currently in Nancys shoes. This article is more of a
research article about Nancys discovery of the process of recycling. She gives definitions and
describes the process with great detail. Thus, I consider her and this article a reliable source to
use for capstone. She also explains how a recent article from the NPR has prompted her to learn
more and use some of the information from that article in hers, thus she implies that she has done
further research from a more reliable source which makes her even more credible. At the end of
her article she even prompts people to learn more about recycling just like she did citing the
website of the NPR at the bottom.

Since this is an article of Nancy going through the stages of so called research I think this is a
great example to use for capstone. Similar to Nancy, many people are not entirely sure of the
whole process of recycling except that they put their items in the correct bin and off they go! I
think this personal experience will not only allow people to scratch the surface about learning
about recycling and what actually happens but motivates them to find out more. This could
possibly be a domino effect causing people to look into recycling in a more in depth view and
therefore take recycling more seriously and help promote recycling and make it easier for the
people at MRF. This can also be a real life example and from here we can use the vocab that she
used, some of which I still have not looked at before and conduct further research into. I also
believe that from Nancys statistics: that 25% of single stream recycle is thrown into the dump,
this will also be an essential to our findings and I will further my research and differentiate upon
the different types of streaming.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 3
19 October 2016

"Understanding Single vs. Dual Stream Recycling - Vangel Shredding and Recycling." Vangel
Shredding and Recycling RSS. VANGEL, 20 July 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

VANGEL is a recycling company that due to their data, want to make things clear and ahre the
difference between single and dual recycling and their historical perspectives. They start by
introducing single stream recycling, a method of recycling which allows paper, cardboard,
plastic, glass and metal to be mixed together for pickup, and has been on the uprise in residential
recycling (or collection) programs, in particular (VANGEL). They explain that many enjoy
single stream because it is easier, but considering that all of the trash is mixed in together, it is
hard to unscramble it resulting in most of the trash going to the dump. VANGEL wants people to
realize that although it may be an easier method of recycling, this does not necessarily mean it is
the best- perhaps only cost efficient for companies and cutting collection costs. By utilizing
single stream recycling there is not a need for multiple employees per truck, saving companies
money- yet it still has negative consequences so VAGAL shifts over to dual streaming recycling.
Dual streaming recycling - source separation recycling- has many benefits, as claimed by lower
levels of contamination, higher quality and more valuable recovered material and lower costs to
process the collected recyclables. VANGEL concludes by prompting people to use dual
streaming, especially big companies because in a professional situation its straightforward to
keep recyclables separated (VANGEL), giving maximum financial benefits and helping the
American market.
This source is credible because it is a recycling company. Thus, VANGEL will display
accurate \, examples and pros and cons of recycling. They deal with companies- big and small all
the time so they know what is financial safe and beneficial for companies and what is not best for
the environment, therefore they are a reliable source when attempting to convert companies over
to dual streaming recycling. The same explanation goes for people, as previously explained, they
know that many use single stream recycling because it is popular and easy to use, despite the fact
that most of it goes to the dump and does not go onto its new life. COnsidering they know the
benefits of dual recycling and how much more beneficial it is towards the environment, they can
credibly tell people to convert to dual recycling over single recycling, because they are a
popularly used recycling company, experts in this topic and also environmentalists.
This article will be useful in my capstone because when talking about recycling, more so the
definition of what it truly is I can break it down into a concept map and differentiate the different
types of recycling out there. From here people can identify themselves as either a single or dual
streamer and we can show them the pro and cons (particularly of the single stream recycling) and
perhaps convert them, over to dual streamers to better the environment. Just the mere fact of
showing people how easy recycling is and the process using the data from this article will
increase the rate of peoples recycling, as we hope.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 4
20 October 2016
Tazz. "Benefits of Dual Stream Recycling." The Balance. About Inc, 11 Aug. 2016. Web. 20 Oct.
2016.

The article starts off by clarifying that single stream recycling is bad- it causes contamination and
efficiency problems, thus as a solution everyone should transfer to dual recycling. Tazz defines
the dual stream, one between single stream recycling and multiple stream recycling and suggests
that it, will always have two separate containers to put the materials; one for mixed containers
and the other for paper boxes and bags. The materials are collected by two separate trucks or by a
single truck with two sections to keep two streams separated. With thus unlike single stream
recycling, it will save time for the employees and decrease the amount of recycling that actually
goes to the dump from single stream recycling. After giving a brief description of the great
possibilities that could emerge from dual stream, Tazz goes into depth of the advantages it may
withhold. Lower processing cost: since the materials are already sorted it takes less time,
employees, energy and machines to do the job thus saving money. Lower levels of
contamination: in single stream recycling all of the materials are in the same bin, unable to be
sorted efficiently at most times causing the majority to the dump for contamination- however this
will not be the case with dual stream because materials will already be sorted. Moderate
collection costs: Unlike multiple stream recycling where many bins have to be placed out for
different materials to be recycled which costs a lot, the collection of dual stream will be moderate
because it does not call for an abundant amount of bins. With every non-bias writer and Tazz,
they look at the disadvantages too because nothing is ever perfect. This is the laziest thing that
humans could possibly do, the one disadvantage of dual stream is that people actually have to
sort out the materials when putting them into bins! People find single stream better because they
do not have to decide which bin to put the materials in, yet it would only take two minutes tops
to decide what bin to conveniently put the material in. Because of such laziness, public
participation of dual stream is low. Tazz concludes with the basic contrast between single and
dual recycling: one causes more contamination one has more participation.
This article I believe is credible, Tazz Haque is an environmentalist and has studied recycling
habits throughout the years. Tazz has also written other various articles throughout the years
regarding recycling. If this is not enough, Tazz also at the end of his article shows his references,
which are also some of the more well known recycling companies and the VANGEL that I
actually did an annotated bibliography on. We can also take away that there is no bias here
because he explained not only the advantages of dual stream but also the disadvantages, showing
that although he believes in dual stream he still shows both sides because he is a credible source.
I am going to use this in my capstone to demonstrate one component method of recycling. In a
previous annotated bibliography I read an article on single stream recycling which briefly
scratched the surface about dual recycling and I knew I needed to learn more about it. Now I
have an abundant amount of information on both single and double recycling to such an extent
and can to an in depth compare and contrast of each. In this article I also learned about multiple
stream recycling, one that I have never heard before. Now I can learn more about this type of
recycling and if significant, use it in my capstone as I plan to make a diagram to show the
different methods of recycling. With the information I can then compare it to single and dual
recycling and do a survey as to which one people use more and why to gather more information
and a real life application.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 5
20 October 2016

By the Time the Mixtures Gets to the End of the Belt, It's Solid Enough to Be. "The Recycling
Process After Collection." The Recycling Process After Collection. University of Oregon, 14
July 1998. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

This is an article from the University of Oregon that talks about the next step in recycling
- what actually happens when your recycle gets picked up by the trucks. It starts off with the
Oregon Recycling Opportunity Act being passed that prompted civilians to start to recycle by
leaving their materials on the curbside. From each specific material being recycled, stated by
UOO, they revolve around collector and hauler, resale, transportation and energy. They have to
do with conserving, and with saving natural resources and fossil fuels and materials. They have
to do with insuring that we preserve our state as we know it for generations to come. Next the
article goes in depth as to how each material: newspaper, cardboard, glass, tin cans and
aluminum go through machines to be recycled. The UOO starts with newspaper and explains
that the process beings with de-inking through a chemical process to being turned into pulp by
a slusher, getting rid of tape and then mixed with a bunch of other deinked newspaper. Going on
a conveyer belt, new newspaper is made at a rate of 3,000 feet per minute. Some newspaper is
remodeled into a new newspaper and some is sent off into wrapping paper. The UOO then talks
about cardboard and how in Oregon, once pulled the cardboard is mixed with more pulp, where
old fibers are blended with the new pulp to make the medium. Recycled paper fibers and new
pulp are blended to make linerboard (UOO). The medium and linerboard are formed into mats
and used for packaging as boxes. Next is glass, which is broken down into cullets (tiny pieces)
where bits of different materials are sorted out of it. Once separated it is mixed with chemicals
and melted into molten glass and remanufactured at Owens-Brockway, where some bottles due
to the Oregon Bottle Bill are reused. The UOO continues with tin cans where a chemical
detinning solution is used to separate, purify and recover the steel and tin. Then formed into
14x14x30 squares and sold off to companies. The UOO then sums up the process of recycling
motor oil, where contaminants are detected, eliminated, heated and boiled. Once this is done, the
oil is mixed with other grades of oil and once okay, is often sent and used for new lubricating oil
on trucks and cars for the most part. Last was aluminum, a simple yet complex process,
depending on the buyer, will be cut up into chips and then melted into ingots which are then
rolled into new sheets of aluminum. They are then used for a multitude of things such as cans,
casting and cars.
This source can be considered credible because of where it comes from. It is from the
University of Oregon, but more specifically the Department of Environmental Qualitys Solid
Waste Policy and Program Development Section. Thus, because they are so to speak in control
of, or have a great extent of knowledge of recycling and the environment they have credibility.
The article is set in Oregon, with all data and evidence based off of Oregons recycling as a
whole due to the Oregon Recycling Opportunity Act. This department is educated in the
environment, recycling, waste management and also apart of the Zero Waste Program in Oregon.
At the end of the article it also sources from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
website. Thus, I believe that this information is reliable and useful.
This information can be of significant use in my capstone. Unlike other articles that just briefly
scratch the surface of what actually happens when items are recycled, this article goes into depth
about the different machines and processes used when different items are being recycled. It can
also be a use of diversity within our capstone for the United States, we mostly have information
that is based off of Massachusetts and Weymouth specifically. Thus, since our capstone is on the
United States and not just Massachusetts itself, this will give us more of generalized information
because we can relate it to Massachusetts and other states in the country. We can also use these
methods of recycling and compare them to methods in Europe.

Aoife Duffy
Ms. Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 1
15 November 2016

Drew, Kevin. The Top 5 Countries for Green Living. U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News &
World Report, Mar. 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

This article Drew displays the top five best countries for green living, also known as the
countries who recycle the most first in a slide show and then a few short paragraphs that talk
more in depth about each countrys efforts to be green. Coming in first is Sweden where Drew
talks about their government and how they are generally encourage a healthy way of life.
Many Swedish people love and take advantage of their vast landscapes and can do this as a result
of taking care of their land. Sweden is also, as pointed out by Drew, has been recognized for its
use of renewable energy sources thus putting them in first place. Next Drew displays that Japan
is the second most green living country, whose people can expect a long life span because of
their green living ways and healthy life styles due to recycling. Third is Germany, whose country
confront[s] the threats posed by climate change (Drew). Fourth in the slideshow is the
Netherlands who extensively use waste recycling and electric cars to become a greener
environment. And last but not least number five was Canada due to their extensive efforts to
clean up the environment by recycling.
Kevin Drew wrote this article on the top five countries that exceed at green living. Drew
writes for the US News, as an assistant managing editor, international. Although he did write this
article in depth about each country, a simple topic everyone can do this does not mean that he is
essentially credited or educated enough to write upon this topic considering it was not
mentioned anywhere that he was knowledgable in these areas. However, he is the assistant
manager of editing at US News this does give him an extent of credentials because he is in
charge of writing and editing papers and has written other articles on this topic. This means that
although he does not have any degrees in environmental issues or global warming, he does have
the skills as an assistant manager editor to do research and write a brief research article on the
topic. This article was also written on a very popular and highly read news and has been around
for eighty-three years, thus making this a more reliable source compared to that of Wikipedia or
some blog.
This article I thought was helpful, although not loaded with specific information about
each country did give a general paragraph about each of the top five countries. The slideshow
was helpful because it not only showed the countries in order but also gave information on what
they do to become green countries such as the Netherlands who constantly recycle and use
electric cars. Each country was also provided with their population size, GDP and more which
can be helpful when trying to find why each of the countries are in the top five. It is also helpful
because it gives the top five, but if you wish to seek more information a longer list of the green
living countries, the article does provide more. This article did prove to be helpful because it
gave me the basics of each country and the numeric order, so now I can go into each one
specifically and further research their mechanisms for recycling. In this case, sometimes less is
more when researching information.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 2
15 November 2016

Galkowski, Claire. "Weymouth Recycling Guide." South Shore Recycling Cooperative. South
Shore Recycling Cooperative, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

This article written by Claire Galkowski explains how to recycle the good and the bad
through preparation, what to include and exclude. This article in particular, like many others on
the South Shore Recycling Cooperative is specific to each town, this article in on Weymouth.
Under the too good to be trashed is: bulky, appliances, scrap metals [which can be scheduled
for pickup] and yard waste [which is picked up at the yard frequently] (Galkowski). For the
separate pickups, the article also provides a schedule for each and a phone number to call for
assistance. The next column is preparation and what is needed to be done before it goes into the
recycle. For bulky, appliances and scrap metal, Galkowski says to remove glass panes and fluids.
She goes on in the next two columns if one is still unsure by these categories of bulky, appliances
and scrap metals that what is allowed are: mattresses, furniture, stoves, refrigerators, bikes,
grills (Galkowski). Then it is provided what one cannot recycle, such as propane tanks,
televisions, computers, exhaust systems (Galkowski). The author then displays the too bad
to be recycled chart which includes categories such as: electronics, automotive, mercury, paint,
cooking oil, books and textiles. Similar to the first chart Galkowski includes the preparations
needed, for which is need assistant or bring to DPW in labeled containers, thus because they
are not considered recyclable material. This chart also provides examples of what would be
considered to fall under these categories such as: phones, copiers, tires, car batteries,
thermometers, oil based paint, used cooking oil (Galkowski). The author also explains that
the town, Weymouth, is a single stream recycling meaning that everything goes in together and
does not get sorted out. Galkowski also provides numbers in which residents can call for further
questions and other links on the website that may further provide answers.

This article can be deemed creditable as it is from the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, a
volunteer association to the South Shore towns founded in 1998. The SSRC helps member
towns, such as Weymouth, improve our recycling systems and influences policy/legislation
involving recycling waste at the state level. This cooperation is involved in various towns all
over the South Shore aiding many towns to improve recycling programs for the better, thus they
have an extensive amount of knowledge on recycling as a whole, but also how each town
operates. This can be shown because the website has a specific page for each member town that
states how and what they can recycle and helps to answer questions about recycling with contact
information and more. Claire Galkowski is also the executive director of the SSRC so this further
enhances the credibility of this article.
 This article was very helpful with my capstone because it was specific towards Weymouth.
This is even better because generalizing about recycling in the United States is hard due to
different demographics and characteristics of people living across the country, so with this
information, especially our hometown we can go in depth with information on recycling in our
town. From here we cannot necessarily say that all of the United States allows the same
recyclable wastes as us, but we can compare and contrast it to other places in the country, or even
a member town near by. The article was further useful because it was very straightforward and
the charts were very clear and helpful. Galkowski also provided links for people who have
further questioning so I can also look at those links to further grasp the ideas/policies of
recycling in Weymouth for my capstone.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 3
16 November 2016

Galkowski, Claire. "Middleboro Recycling Guide." South Shore Recycling Cooperative. South
Shore Recycling Cooperative, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

This article explains the different kinds of materials that can be recycled in Middleborough,
how to prepare them for recycling and what these categories include and exclude.
Middleborough only has items that are too good to be trashed in their charts provided by
Galkowski. The categories of items include: yard waste, bulky, appliances, scrap metal,
electronics, automotive, mercury, paints, stains, books and clothing. Galkowski provides
information that someone categories may have fees that apply while others do not. For
preparation of these categories they include: loose or in paper bags [yard waste], remove glass
panes, fluid [appliances], remove applicable doors [automotive], April 1-October 31st original
containers, readable labels, tightly sealed [mercury]... (Galkowski). The next column further
explains what may be included in these categories: leaves, hay, branches less than 3 [yard
waste], homeowner construction waste, furniture [bulky], fluorescent tubes, thermometers
[mercury], liquid latex/based paint, polyurethane thinner [paint/stain], etc (Galkowski).
Finally the last column, what is not allowed or excluded from these categories: plastic bags
[yard waste], see attendant for propane tank [scrap metal], mixtures, other fluids to HHW
Collection Event [paint/stain] (Galkowski). The author also provides at the top of the chart
that the town of Middleborough is a single stream recycling, which means that they do not
separate their recyclable waste. Galkowski also provides thinks for further questioning and
contact information.
This article can be deemed creditable as it is from the South Shore Recycling
Cooperative, a volunteer association to the South Shore towns founded in 1998. The SSRC helps
member towns, such as Middleborough, attempting to improve recycling systems and influences
policy/legislation involving recycling waste at the state level. This cooperation is involved in
various towns all over the South Shore aiding many towns to improve recycling programs for the
better, thus they have an extensive amount of knowledge on recycling as a whole, but also how
each town operates. This can be shown because the website has a specific page for each member
town that states how and what they can recycle and helps to answer questions about recycling
with contact information and more. Claire Galkowski is also the executive director of the SSRC
so this further enhances the credibility of this article.
This article is very helpful, similar to the one about the town of Weymouth.
Middleborough is a great distance away from Weymouth so it is interesting to see that although
they are both on the South Shore and members of the SSRC, they do have some what contrasting
methods to recycle and what is and is not allowed to be recycled. This article was easy to
understand and the chart was very clear and easy to follow. The information was detailed enough
that I can include it within my capstone and if I wanted to or needed, thanks to Claire Galkowski
I can use the links and look further into the recycling for Middleborough. This article will be
used in comparison to the Weymouth methods and what is and is not allowed to be recycled in
the town. Here I can make a complexity that although both towns have similar methods of
recycling they do differ thus other states in the country may recycle differently. It could be an
interesting idea to find little towns all over the country and try to find out their methods of
recycling and compare it to the South Shore or even Massachusetts alone.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 4
16 November 2016

Stime, Luke. "Recycling Information Sheet." West Coast Recycling. West Coast Recycling, 13
June 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

This article by Luke Stime is more of an information sheet for California by the West
Coast Recycling Company that provides updates on what can and cannot be recycled as of May
19th. Stime provides information for residents that curbside pick up is now free however those in
the ACRD residential recycling program [will no longer be provided with] free drop off
residential recyclables at Songbird depots. For some background information, Songbird Refuse
and Recycling is an association partnered up with West Coast Recycling. In the information sheet
it is explained that all materials must be cleaned before pick up or else they will not be taken, to
further explain what is allowed and what is not Stime provides a chart including that of:
corrugated cardboard, mixed containers, rigid plastic and mixed paper products. Each category
explains what can be included and how to prepare it: cardboard must be cut or bundled so it fits
in the blue box, which includes non-waxed shipment boxes and packing materials. For each
category it also explains what cannot be included, such as for cardboard: dirty cardboard, foil
lined or waxed cardboard. Mixed containers allows food grade metal cans, milk and cream
cartons, aluminium foil wrap and containers and must be rinsed and all labels removed. This
does not include glass containers, scrap metal, flammable product and paint containers. Rigid
plastic includes that of plastic bottles and jugs, plant pots and seedling trays, to go containers and
pails. These items must be rinsed and flattened down before going into the blue box. Items that
are not included are: plastic bags, straws. Styrofoam, motor oil containers. Last is mixed paper
products including newspapers, telephone books, junk mail, gift wrapping, microwavable bowls
and cups (paper made), frozen dessert boxes, etc. They must be removed of plastic liners,
flattened, shredded paper in plastic bag. This does not include that of wax or foil lined paper,
bathroom tissue, paper towel and chip or foil wraps. Stime concludes the information sheet with
changes to the residential recycling on the West Coast, contact information for information and
questions and how the changes will affect residential recycling.
This source is credible because it is a well known company of the West Coast and is
partnered with multiple other recycling companies (Songbird Refuse and Recycling, Alberni-
Clayoquot Regional District, Raincoast Education Society). The West Coast Recycling company
teaming up with these other associations aid commercial recycling and waste management
services. Their goal is to ensure recycling on the West Coast is as easy as possible (Stime) by
constantly updating their efforts in making California greener with blog posts. Within these blog
posts they provide evidence and pictures about communities and their gains. They provide
schedules for different pick up days for different towns on the website. Thus this makes them a
reliable source and they provide an abundant amount of details and information based on
recycling, how to recycle and schedules. Specifically in the newsletter by Stime that was
summarized above it was given to an extensive list of towns throughout California and was read
by many thus showing it is a reliable source used and known by many.
This will be of good use in our capstone because while we have an abundant amount of
information on different recycling methods from places such as Weymouth and Middleborough,
those among the South Shore, we lack information on recycling from places such as the West
Coast. Luckily this was another chart/ information sheet that was very clear and easy to
comprehend with visuals,etc. The chart was created with categories, what are acceptable and
what are not acceptable for recycling and how to prepare the recyclable waste. This is awesome
because this is practically the same format as the articles about Weymouth and Middleborough
and will be easy to put side by side and compare them all. This was very interesting to see that
they do have similar recyclable materials, yet they have some unusual ones compared to that of
Weymouth. It will be really interesting to make a compare and contrast chart.

Aoife Duffy
Ms.Gosselin
Annotated Bibliography 5
21 November 2016

Public Attitudes Towards Recycling and Waste Management (n.d.): 12-17. Cabinet Office, Sept.
2002. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

In this publishment, I focused on pages 12- 17 which specified on Attitudes to waste

management options, finding that 94-98% of people in the United Kingdom had overwhelming
public support for recycling composting (Public Attitudes), an environment beneficial activity.
The study found that only the 11-15% of the population found recycling did more harm than
good where as everyone else more or less thought that the consequences of recycling on
environmental issues were acceptable considering the beneficial factors it brings. The pages were
divided up into the different types of recycling and the attitudes people had towards them:
recycling, reuse and composing (the introduction), landfill, incineration, waste minimisation.
Within the introduction researchers found that when people receive incentives such as refundable
deposits and small scale financial incentives (ex. returning corona bottles, supermarket reward
schemes, and the appeal to children are well established in peoples minds (Public)). Next was
landfill, where the majority of people concluded that burying waste in the ground (landfill) has
a negative effect on the environment (Public), although many feel that they are not very
informed on the topic of landfill itself. Researchers also included quotes of the populations initial
thoughts on landfill, specifically when it came to plastic as many believed that it was the most
abundant material and would be the worst to be buried. This can be seen when expressed by
males 25-40, social class ABC1, Greenwich: Plastic is probably more important than all of
them put together and you cant get rid of it. Glass does eventually break down into the soil,
paper rots, clothes rot. The next topic was incineration where two thirds of people felt less
informed about vs. landfills yet still had negative thoughts about them as dangerous and costly.
Although not a complete rejection of incinerations, people feel that it should be kept to a
minimum and used if necessary such as with clinical waste and control of burning materials. Yet,
those who have some knowledge about the concept and do happen to live near one still express
concerns about dioxins, smells, ash residue and emissions of carbon dioxide (Public).
Incinerations overall can be considered the lesser of the two evils (Public) and when discussed
as having an environmental benefit or linked to a policy of energy recovery/conversation. Last on
the list is waste minimization, where many have heard of the idea and have witnessed it in other
countries and cannot understand why the United Kingdom does not follow as well. Many feel
that if they were to begin this process, it would be in the hands of the government and
manufacturers because they produce the most excess of product waste, this is seen when
expressed by males, 30-45, social class C1C2, Daventary: The suppliers of the new product
should have a responsibility to pick up the new product. The author then suggest that
minimizing waste is a cause of decrease in motivation to avoid excess packaging and concludes
the chapter by summarizing that recycling good; landfill bad (Public).
The cabinet office is a ministerial department, who supports the Prime Minister and help
the running of the government in the United Kingdom. They corporates the headquarters of the
government, and lead critical policy areas and do this by the aid of nineteen agencies and bodies.
Thus from this I believe that this chapter of a book is very helpful and reliable, considering they
are very popular and highly ranked with the Prime Minister. Also it is a research and overall
review of recycling founded by the Strategy Unit of the Cabinet Office thus further helping the
credibility of this chapter with multiple researches and all data cited accordingly.
I will use this chapter in my capstone multiple times, because it contains a hand full of
information and data that I can use as a part of my European side of recycling. This covers all of
the different types of recycling: landfills, waste minimization and recycling as a whole and we
get to see peoples perspectives on each one. This can further our explanations and enhance our
videos and pictures that we got when we visited Europe this past April. It will also we of great
use because it has real peoples answers and perspectives on recycling instead of the average data
and summarization and article has. This will overall be of great use in our capstone, for not only
the European aspect of our capstone but also peoples perspectives and attitudes on such.