05 - Organics Separation Behavioral Study A presentation prepared for the Study Session of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District June 17, 2014 Food Scraps in the City: Understanding and improving household organic waste separation behavior Sally Geislar, M.A. Doctoral Candidate Department of Planning, Policy, and Design School of Social Ecology & Director of the Food Works Lab Center for Unconventional Security Affairs University of California Irvine Sally is a PhD candidate in Planning, Policy and Design and the Founder and Director of the Food Works Lab at the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Southwest Minnesota State University and a M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis from UCI. Her dissertation explores infrastructural synergies in urban waste systems and examines the opportunities for normative influence to improve organic waste separation in the home. She was a NEURUS/ICURD Fellow at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands where she studied the determinants of household organic waste separation behavior. Her research has been presented at national conferences and has focused on sustainability issues including environmental justice, public lands planning, transportation policy, and household -level behavior change . She has also served as demographic and statistical consultant and program evaluation assistant to non -profit organization s and philanthropy consultants. Contact: sgeislar@gmail.com Summary of design and preliminary results of a 10 week pilot program at UCI to expand separate food scrap collection to 1700 on -campus graduate apartments Baseline survey and resident recruitment Aug -Oct working with a team of research assistants 8 week experiment with 400 -600 residents to improve organic separation behavior starting with January roll -out Improved participation in Orange County's first curbside organics collection program Develop scaled -up version of the tools used in this project to reach larger populations cheaply, easily, and effectively Food Works Lab : Current Study Vision for Study in Costa Mesa Benefits to CM Sanitary District ITEM NO. 05