March 14

Our entire group went to the recycling center, and it was my first time interacting with the people there and understanding our purpose as volunteers. At first, I was unsure how to approach the 3 receivers we were given to fix because the mechanical side of engineering is not what I am especially skilled in. I was surprised at how much free range we had to simply play around with the different equipment until we managed to make a breakthrough in figuring out how to operate and fix the receivers. Unfortunately, all three of them that we were working on weren’t able to work to it’s full capacity, but they were able to turn on at the very least. The lack of proper tools and knowledge of these older modeled devices contributed to the inability of fixing them completely. In terms of the work environment, the tools and supplies were scattered around the area in various bins, which made finding the appropriate tools difficult in the first place, and figuring out how to utilize the tools once we found them was also a challenge for me personally. To improve this disorganization, I believe it would be beneficial to organize the bins in a more specific way in each category. For example, instead of all the wires being in one bin, we could separate them by what each wire is typically used for, such as computers, receivers, or video game consoles. Also, making a permanent location for these bins in the recycling center would lessen the confusion that comes with them always moving around. I noticed also that there was not a lot of space to work with which made switching and finding tools difficult, and our team all huddled around one receiver at one point. When we moved on from one receiver to the next, we simply put a small tag on the top that described the current state of the device and stacked them back on top of each other, which covered the tag for the bottom two. There should definitely be a separate area for finished versus unfinished products to reduce the risk of accidently trying to sell something that isn’t in good working condition. Overall, there are many systematic improvements that could be made.

​

​

​

March 23

Today, Christina and I visited the e-waste center with a different goal of really looking around the center and understanding the layout of all the products, as well as begin interviewing some of the workers there. Before conducting our interviews, we looked around the back area at all the different bins of electronics and tables for repairing items, which I had not seen before. We then travelled around the store front and saw the huge variety of products that they have to offer that I actually would have been interested in buying. I noticed that the items were more organized than the testing room and seemed to have a specific place they belonged based on the type of electronic they were. I also observed that some of them had small bright orange stickers with the price on them, while some had the bigger tags that we used in the back to mark information on them. This made it kind of unclear to me if the orange tags meant they were in perfect working condition versus the bigger tags meaning there was something broken or missing in the product. Clarity of this is really the only thing I could see in terms of improving the storefront, because overall it’s fun and easy to walk through the store. Our first interview was with one of the three female workers named Tiana. She is officially the bulk buying coordinator, but she also works the front desk as well as take pictures for their eBay sales. She provided us with a lot of information about the process of dropping off items, the demographics of the people that come into the center, and her own personal stories. She shared with us that if she were in charge she would raise the wages for working there because of the sometimes uncomfortable and difficult situations as well as hire more workers to help in the center. We also interview Adam, a marketing major in college that started working there more recently. He does similar duties as Tiana, and explained to us that the layout of the sorting process could definitely be improved. Being a part time student worker, he finds it to be a struggle when he comes into work and everything is constantly moving around and in a different spot because he has to always readjust and relearn where some things go. I noticed both of the workers we interviewed also seemed very enthusiastic about their work and seemed to both have a strong passion for helping the environment. They also both suggested that their staff is like a family, and it makes the job more difficult if someone doesn’t come or isn’t helping out. Overall, today’s experience was a lot more observing and gathering data for potential ideas for how we can make their process more efficient.


 

March 28

Jed, Daniel, and I went to the recycling center with the goal of conducting more interviews, especially with the people who work in the back who we didn’t get too much information from yet. We first interviewed a student worker named Lucas that mainly works in the back with the products that come in for repair. He expressed that sometimes he finds it difficult and time consuming to find certain materials he needs to fix the items as well as inefficient when he has to wait for a more experienced person to assist him. He is eager to learn more from the more experienced workers and hopes that through time he won’t need as much guidance. Afterwards, we interviewed the Assistant Manager, Danny. One thing that really stood out to me was when he mentioned that he didn’t think an inventory system would be helpful or useful in their type of work environment. I knew that this was one of the ideas that we had in the back of our minds for a possible solutions for the recycling center to improve their efficiency, and the fact that one of the main people in charge doesn’t see it being helpful is definitely something to take into consideration. However, he did agree that they need a better system of organizing where the finished, working products versus the unchecked, broken products are placed within the center. Next, we interviewed a retired man who also volunteers named Raymond, who is one of the more knowledgeable and skilled workers when it comes to the electronics. He expressed how much he loves coming to the center and helping, even though he doesn’t get paid, and enjoys the atmosphere of the store. Again, he also agreed that many things could be done to organize the tools as well as have more in stock of each material. Finally, we got the chance to quickly interview a customer in the store while he was browsing their selection. It was interesting to me that the only way he found out about the store is from him actively looking for a place to sell his electronics. He suggested it would be a good idea to have more publicity for the store and it’s services so that more people will be involved and supportive. Overall, the interviews gave us excellent feedback on some potential ideas and allowed us to delve deeper into their true needs.